HAWKESBURY horse trainer Mitch Kearney’s wife Desiree has a keen eye for a horse that can run.
So Kearney wasn’t backward in giving her the credit she deserved when Storm Master broke through for his first NSW victory at his home track last Sunday.
In a tough finish, the former Victorian four-year-old outgamed another Hawkesbury representative Legistation, after the pair of horses had the NewOz Concreting Benchmark 65 Handicap (1400m) to themselves all the way along the home straight at the Hawkesbury Race Club.
“Our owners Peter Knight and Robyn Tatham gave us a commission to buy them a horse, and Desiree picked this bloke out at a Melbourne tried sale earlier in the year,” Kearney explained after the race.
“He had been only lightly raced, and Desiree liked him when she saw him.
“It’s great to win a race for Peter and Robyn.”
Storm Master had notched three placings since joining Kearney’s stable.
Kearney was confident he would run well on Sunday in spite of a distant last of four runners as favorite at the annual Bong Bong picnic meeting on November 24, when he carried 61.5kg in a 1200m Open Handicap.
Kearney and another Hawkesbury trainer Garry White – who scored two races later with Dunatun on Sunday– followed on from the Kembla Grange successes of Brad Widdup and Wade Slinkard on Saturday.
Widdup’s promising three-year-old Spellology maintained his unbeaten record from three starts in the Class 2 Handicap (1600m), and Slinkard and apprentice Claire Nutman again teamed to land the Benchmark 60 Handicap (2000m) with Stradazzle.
White had endured second placings with Fifth Affair and Letter To Juliette at Hawkesbury on Sunday before Dunatun finally broke through at his ninth start in the OnRail Provincial & Country Maiden Handicap (1100m).
With Corey Brown aboard, Dunatun was too strong over the closing stages for Nutman’s mount Kathaire ($5), who was also prepared at Hawkesbury by her father Richard.
Brown, Parr and Brenton Avdulla shut out their rivals on Sunday, with the trio sharing the wins of the seven-race program between them at Hawkesbury’s closing meeting of the calendar year.
Brown won the last three races (Allez Bien, Dunatun and impressive Newcastle filly Sasso Corbaro) after Avdulla had won the opening two (Coonawarra and Ballet Rose) and then Parr won the third and fourth on promising first starter and cracking type, Godunov, and Storm Master.
At Hawkesbury, we now have a five week recess for track renovations, with racing to restart in the new year with the club’s Community Race Day during Australia Day week, on Wednesday January 24th.
Greg Rudolph is the chief executive officer at Hawkesbury Race Club.
