TAMWORTH NOT TOO FAR FOR PROVINCIAL DUO

THEY had to send their horses a bit further than scheduled – but two provincial trainers didn’t mind one bit!

Newcastle’s Jason Deamer and Wyong’s Mark Howard both won races at Tamworth yesterday at the Willow Tree Cup meeting transferred from Quirindi.

Deamer’s lightly-raced filly Sagaponack ($4.20 favorite) took the Cup (a Benchmark 50 Handicap, 1000m), and Howard’s Helen’s Crown ($5 pictured above) broke through in the Maiden Handicap (1000m).

Jake Pracey-Holmes rode Sagaponack, and apprentice Shae Wilkes partnered Helen’s Crown.

A $250,000 Magic Millions yearling buy at the Gold Coast in 2023, Dynamic Syndications gave Sagaponack to Deamer after she ran third on debut for Ciaron Maher in a Canberra Maiden (1000m) last September.

The cleverly-named daughter of Snitzel and The Hamptons (Sagaponack is a luxury hotel in New York’s The Hamptons) has now won two of her three starts since arriving in Newcastle.

“Sagaponack did a good job to win yesterday,” Deamer said today.

“She hadn’t raced for six weeks since winning a Maiden Plate (1006m) at Port Macquarie on April 19, and had 59.5kg yesterday and drew awkwardly.

“Sagaponack keeps improving, and we’ll look for another suitable race to see if we can bring up a hat-trick with her.”

Pracey-Holmes had Sagaponack on the back of the leading bunch on the home turn and she ran on strongly in the centre of the track to easily defeat Hermosa Rosa ($11) and Just Jacky ($6.50).

Whilst Sagaponack is flying the stable flag high, Deamer has sent his city winner Rapt for a spell.

She won a Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1600m) at Royal Randwick in December and, freshened up, also won the opening 1400m Qualifier of the Provincial-Midway Championships at Hawkesbury in February.

Howard also had Helen’s Crown in at Muswellbrook today, but opted for Tamworth – and got the result.

However there was a sad note to the Hallowed Crown four-year-old mare’s victory at her ninth start.

“Andrew Pacey named this mare after his mother Helen, who passed away recently and never saw her win a race,” Howard said.

“I had been trying to win a race whilst Helen was alive, and the mare was unlucky not to win first-up at Narromine in late April when a close second.

“Then I took her to Wellington on May 13, but things just didn’t work out.”

“Helen’s Crown had a nice run behind the leaders at Tamworth, and responded well when Shae got her out into the clear after straightening and she won nicely.”

Howard keeps only a small team in work, and this was his fifth winner of the season.

He also has an unnamed Tassort filly out of Helen’s Crown’s dam Our Ellen.

Coincidentally, Jason Deamer trained Our Ellen, but she never made it to the races and he also prepared her dam Our Jen for the last three starts of her career.

The late Newcastle trainer Alan Scorse prepared Our Jen, the daughter of Youthful Legs, for the majority of her career, and won three races with her.

Story John Curtis, June 1, 2025 - Pics Bradley Photos