FORBES A WINNING MECCA FOR HAWKESBURY TRAINERS

FORBES annual Cup meeting has long been a mecca for a number of Hawkesbury trainers – and it was no different today.

Terry Croft (above) and husband and wife Phil and Tara Vigouroux were represented again and didn’t return home empty handed either.

The first Hawkesbury trainers to kick off the new season with success, Croft scored with Zoutastic and Team Vigouroux with Unreal Expectation at the Showcase fixture.

To make it an all Hawkesbury affair, jockey Chad Lever gave faultless displays to win on both horses.

Zoutastic ($2.30 favorite) was untouched in taking the Benchmark 82 Handicap (1200m), whilst Unreal Expectation ($4.60) was too good for his rivals in the Class 1 Handicap (1400m).

Croft, who says he loves making a weekend away getting to the Forbes Cup and was there for “about the 14^th time”, has travelled all over the countryside with Zoutastic – and it has paid off handsomely.

He won a $100,000 Inglis Xtra Bonus Series Maiden for connections with her at Wagga in January, and then more recently a Class 2 Handicap (1000m) at the Grafton carnival last month.

“Zoutastic had only one start as a two-year-old, and we didn’t rush her,” Croft said.

“She is improving all the time, and has come back really well this preparation.

“Zoutastic has won nearly $200,000. Not bad for a $5000 buy.”

Croft, who always has a canny eye for a bargain, secured the now four-year-old daughter of first season sire Zousain at the 2023 Inglis HTBA yearling sale in Sydney, and then syndicated her amongst friends.

Coming off his best season in many years (11 winners) from a boutique stable, he has made a swift beginning to the 2025-26 racing year.

Lever had Zoutastic parked behind the leaders in the run, and she always travelled like a winner.

He did not have to resort to using the whip as she comfortably defeated Miss Jennifer ($3.10) and Shipshape ($6).

It was a relatively quiet season for Phil and Tara Vigouroux with only two winners – and Unreal Expectation was one of them late in 2024-25.

But they haven’t wasted any time getting off the mark at only the third day of the new racing year with a four-year-old who was having only his fourth start.

Horses don’t always progress straight from winning a Maiden to a Class 1, but it was no impediment for the gelded son of Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap winner Under The Louvre.

He had tenaciously broken through at Bathurst in a 1400m Plate on July 21 when also partnered by Lever, who made no mistake on him again.

Phil Vigouroux wanted Lever to push forward early on Unreal Expectation to negate his wide draw, and he did that.

He then gave the gelding time to settle before getting him going again when the pressure went on before the home turn.

Unreal Expectation was wide on the corner, but sustained a determined run to defeat A Boy Named Soo ($12) and Luna Angel ($15) in the style of a horse who looks capable at some stage of stretching further in distance.

“We’ll have a decision to make now whether to give him perhaps another run to chase a hat-trick or perhaps a break,” Vigouroux said afterwards.

“If it keeps raining in Sydney, we will probably keep him in work for the time being.”

Story John Curtis, August 3, 2025 - Pics Bradley Photos