SYDNEY CUP WINNER TO CHASE NEWCASTLE GOLD CUP DOUBLE

CHANGINGOFTHEGUARD will be the first Sydney Cup winner in two decades to contest the Newcastle Gold Cup in the same year.

Leading Newcastle trainer Kris Lees has announced the $300,000 Gold Cup (2300m) at Broadmeadow on Friday week as the import’s next target.

It was Lees in fact who had the last horse to attempt to complete the Sydney Cup – Newcastle Cup double in the same year, though not in the same season.

That was former stable warrior County Tyrone, who at his fourth attempt won the Group 1 Sydney Cup (3200m) at Royal Randwick in 2006.

He had run second in 2003, fourth in 2004 and second again in 2005 before, with Jim Cassidy aboard, finally broke through in 2006 as a $15 chance, defeating Zabeat and Three Chimneys.

Unfortunately, the durable gelding wasn’t able to win his hometown Cup later in the year.

With regular rider Cassidy again in the saddle, he ran fifth with 58kg to Bikkie Tin Blues.

County Tyrone ran in three Newcastle Cups, and concluded his remarkable career by finishing third to Bianca in 2008 at his 87th start as a $21 outsider.

Last year’s Sydney Cup winner Arapaho ran third to subsequent Caulfield Cup winner Durston in the 2022 Newcastle Cup, and 2014 Sydney Cup winner The Offer ran fifth in the following year’s Newcastle Cup.

Changingoftheguard (Jason Collett) was a gutsy winner of the Sydney Cup in April, and Lees feels the Newcastle Cup is the right race for the eight-year-old at his second start this campaign.

He finished last (with 59.5kg) of eight runners in Boniface’s Group 3 Premier’s Cup over an unsuitable 2000m at Randwick on August 22, and has progressed nicely since.

“Going to 2300m second-up will suit him better,” Lees said today.

“There are options in Sydney and Melbourne after that, and obviously we’re hoping he is going well enough to have another crack at the Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington in November.”

Changingoftheguard finished in the “top 10” in Half Yours’ Cup victory last year.

Meanwhile, Dylan Gibbons again will ride promising three-year-old Under Focus in Saturday’s Group 2 Run To The Rose (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens.

Gibbons partnered the lightly-raced three-year-old in his eye-catching first-up sixth to Chilly Girl in the Listed Rosebud (1100m) at Rosehill on August 15.

However, Jason Collett was in the saddle when the Too Darn Hot colt ran second to Skyhook in a 1000m Gosford trial last Monday.

“Under Focus trialled nicely, and is on track for the Run To The Rose,” Lees said.

“I trialled him at Gosford as it will be a month between his first and second start.”

Stablemate Rivellino also is heading to Rosehill on Saturday to begin a new campaign.

Lees is yet to decide if the now four-year-old (also a son of Too Darn Hot) will resume in either the Group 2 Theo Marks Stakes (1300m) or Benchmark 88 Handicap (1100m).

He has given him three trials – the latest when successful over stablemate Tavi Time in a 1000m Open heat at Gosford last Monday – before deciding to take him back to the races.

All Rivellino’s three career wins were in his two-year-old season, including the $2m Inglis Millennium (1100m) at Randwick in February last year.

Provincial trainers Jake Hull (Gosford), James Harding (Newcastle) and John Cooper (Wyong) all were successful at Kempsey yesterday.

Hull landed the Maiden Plate (1000m) with Red Henno debutante Valder (Jenny Duggan) at $4.40, Harding backed up from winning with Grinzinger Pod at the Wyong Cup meeting the previous day by

scoring with Tesorino (Liberty Smyth) as a $2.15 favorite in the Benchmark 50 Handicap (1000m), and Cooper took the 1250m Benchmark 50 Handicap with Just One Look (Peter Graham) at $11.

Newcastle apprentice Liberty Smyth clinched a double, also winning on Taree-trained Strobing ($5.50) in the Benchmark 58 Handicap (1900m). STORY BY JOHN CURTIS, SEPTEMBER 6, 2026. PIC BARDLEY PHOTOS.