LEADING Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup has an “ace” up his sleeve with last start winner Guzumped on his home track on Tuesday.
That ace is his apprentice Zac Wadick, whose 2kg claim will ensure the four-year-old carries the same weight (59kg) as in his latest Class 1 Handicap (1600m) victory at Wyong on June 6, when partnered by senior jockey Tyler Schiller.
“Zac’s 2kg allowance at the provincials is very handy,” Widdup said.
“Guzumped has trained on well since the Wyong race, and is ready to step up in distance.”
Wadick has ridden 14 winners (including a city breakthrough for his boss on Maili at Canterbury on June 10) for Widdup since transferring to him from Taree at the end of last year.
It was 12 months between wins for Dundeel gelding Guzumped, whose only previous victory was at his first start for Widdup, in a Provincial Maiden Plate (1600m) at Kembla Grange on May 23 last year.
However, he has had to contend with a couple of issues, including a quarter crack to a foot which necessitated time off, and was placed four times in between those wins.
Widdup, who has trained eight winners at home amongst his 58 so far this season, also runs Hyperbolic (Maiden Plate, 1000m) and Troika (Benchmark 64 Handicap, 1100m).
Schiller rides debutante Hyperbolic, and Wadick again uses his 2kg claim on Troika.
Proisir two-year-old Hyperbolic races in the same colours as her stablemate and recent Canterbury winner Jedibeel, and was a $240,000 New Zealand yearling purchase, whilst Troika is resuming from a break.
“Hyperbolic is a nice filly ready to begin her career,” Widdup said. “She will have only one or two runs this time, and from a future viewpoint I feel we can look forward to her doing some nice things next season.
“Troika’s outside barrier isn’t as bad as it first seemed.
“Only 10 horses can start, and he also came from the outside (nine) when he led and won a Provincial Benchmark 64 Handicap (1100m) at Hawkesbury in February.”
Fellow Hawkesbury trainers Jason Attard and Lucy Keegan-Attard have called on last Saturday’s Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap winning rider Zac Lloyd to lift Cryptonic into the winning list in the 3YO Maiden Plate (1000m).
Team Attard’s colt, who was narrowly beaten on debut at Hawkesbury on May 14 before finishing fourth there as an odds-on favorite 16 days later, was withdrawn from a Newcastle engagement last Saturday.
Young gun Lloyd, with 13.5 wins, is a runaway leader in the Hawkesbury apprentices’ premiership, and leads last year’s winner Schiller by one and a half in the senior title.
Chris Waller, with 10 wins for the season, has a two-win advantage over Peter and Paul Snowden, with three fixtures remaining after this program.
Winning races at Hawkesbury is nothing new to Pat Murphy.
But that was in a former role as a jockey, and now he is hoping to continue on a “roll” and win his first race there tomorrow when he returns as a trainer.
Goulburn-based Murphy, who has made an excellent start to his new career by winning 30 races (including two city successes with Body Bob) already since taking out his licence in the 2021-22 season, runs ex-Queenslander Victory Roll ($5 with TAB.com.au this morning), in the XXXX Gold Class 1 Handicap (1600m).
Previously trained on the Sunshine Coast by David Vandyke, the three-year-old gelding is a younger half-brother to his brilliant 2022 Group 1 Queensland Oaks winner Gypsy Goddess, who was retired prematurely because of breathing issues and exported to Japan to begin a breeding career.
Story John Curtis, June 17, 2024 - Pics Bradley Photos
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