Darwin trainer Phil Cole has been racing his horses in outback Queensland for the past three weeks and he continues to enjoy unbridled success.
Cole, who has raced horses in that part of the world in the past, managed a winning treble at Bedourie on Saturday after posting five winners over two days at the Birdsville Race Club’s 140th anniversary meeting the previous weekend.
Bedourie is located 187km up the road from Birdsville – located in the south-western pocket of Queensland near the borders of South Australia and the Northern Territory and just east of the Simpson Desert – and it too is a dirt track.
After making the trip from the Northern Territory’s Top End to the western region of Queensland with a team of 11 horses, Cole kicked his campaign off at Betoota – 167km east of Birdsville – on August 27.
Despite not tasting success in Betoota, Cole had nine runners and picked up a few minor placings.
That included Saccharo, who finished third over 1600m at an open level, and Kronos, who finished fourth over 1000m at an open level, before they both brought their best form to the table at Birdsville.
After winning the $42,000 Birdsville Cup (1600m) by four lengths, former Victorian galloper Saccharo backed up a week later to win the $15,000 Bedourie Cup (1600m) as a prohibitive $1.50 favourite with the top online betting sites in the four-horse field.
Happy to sit in second place behind Getyourgreyon ($3), who finished sixth in the Birdsville Cup, Saccharo (Sarah Robbins) made his move at the turn before recording an effortless victory by just under five lengths.
Allocated 61kg, Robbins was able to claim 3kg which made Saccharo’s task that much easier.
The seven-year-old gelding boasted good form in Victoria and hasn’t done much wrong since arriving in Darwin, so he was always going to prove a match for his rivals on the occasions he raced in Queensland.
Robbins, a former Alice Springs trainer who has now based herself in Miles in Queensland as a jockey, was making her first appearance at Bedourie and guided Stroke Of Magic home for Cole on the second day of the Birdsville Races.
Getyourgreyon is trained by Luke Miller, Robbins’ partner, who also rode the horse in the Bedourie Cup where it ended up finishing fourth.
Miller is also a former Alice Springs jockey, who rode Qualis to victory for trainer Sheila Arnold at Alice Springs on August 26 when he and Robbins returned to the Red Centre for a short holiday.
After returning to Miles, Miller and Robbins packed up a team of horses and headed to Birdsville before spending last weekend at Bedourie.
For the second week in a row, the Kym Healy-trained $2 hope Magnossiva (John Keating) from South Australia finished second in a Cup behind Saccharo.
Healy and Cole are good friends, but after finishing second on six occasions during the Birdsville Races it seemed as though it was going to be yet another day of frustration for the Strathalbyn trainer.
Adoradancer (John Keating) finished second in one other race on the Bedourie program, but Healy finally got to celebrate when Caitlin’s Angel (John Keating) flew home to edge out the Kevin Sims-trained Loveson (Sarah Robbins) from Toowoomba by the bearest of margins over 1200m.
After winning on the first day at Birdsville, Loveson (Sarah Robbins) finished second behind the Cole-trained Kronos (Robert Faehr) in the feature race on the second day – the $25,000 Lyndhurst Stud Open Handicap (1200m).
After saluting at Birdsville for Cole, Crazy Lad (John Keating) made it back to back wins over 1300m (Class 6) starting at $2 with stablemates Stroke Of Magic (Sarah Robbins) and Maxaway (Luke Miller) dead-heating for third place.
Andaman (John Keating), who had finished second at Betoota and Birdsville, made it a treble for Cole when he snuck home by the narrowest of margins in an 1100m maiden as a $1.10 favourite from Luke Miller’s Time Flies By.
Cole also had a second with Ghetto, a third with Faith And Love, and a fourth with Do Your Best at Bedourie.
“I thought Saccharo was very impressive on the weekend,” Cole said from Winton on Tuesday.
“Sarah rode the horse really well.
“The 3kg claim helped a lot, but I thought he probably still would have won without the claim.
“I was quite happy with Crazy Lad.
“He promised quite a bit when we got him in Darwin.
“He’s ran two good consistent races here since arriving in Queensland this preparation – it’s been good.
“We’ve been having a good run out here.
“It’s been a great experience over here this time.
“We’ve been quite lucky and the horses have been performing really well.
“We’re camped up at Winton at the moment and plan to race here this Saturday.”
The Birdsville Races normally take place on the first Friday and Saturday in September, but the program was switched to Saturday and Sunday when repairs were made to the track on the Friday following heavy rain on the Wednesday and Thursday.
As fate would have it, rain also fell leading up to the races at Bedourie and repairs were made to the track.
“On the Wednesday, we ended up with about 6mm of rain,” Cole said.
“We were out there the next morning sweeping some of the water off and then the Bedourie Race Club got the grader out for a couple of days.
“We had plenty of time for the track to dry out and we ended up having a good surface to race on come Saturday.”
That wasn’t the only slice of drama to occur on the day as substitute saddle-cloths had to be organised.
“Apparently the club had new amenities built a few years ago pre-Covid and they misplaced their saddlecloths – they couldn’t find any,” Cole said.
“So we made some out of table-cloths for the races and added the numbers.
“Not often you go to the races and that happens.”
With only five jockeys on course at Bedourie, Cole had no complaints when he was forced to scratch Kick It Baby in the race that Caitlin’s Angel won.
“It happens, it’s not just out here at these meetings in Queensland where you have difficulty getting riders,” he said.
“We do have the same issue in the Territory as well.”
Having arrived in Winton, 550km north-east of Bedourie, Cole hopes to run Crazy Lad, Faith And Love, Maxaway, Andaman, Do Your Best and It’s Pins this Saturday.
Cole, one of the leading trainers in the Northern Territory these days, and wife Rhonda are contemplating making the 180km trip south-east to race at Longreach the following Saturday instead of heading to Mt Isa before making the long journey back home to Darwin.
“There’s the Longreach Cup the week after Winton and we’re sort of looking at it,” he said.
“Saccharo is eligible to run there in the Cup and there’s a nice sprint race for Kronos.
“There’s a good chance that we’ll probably end up at Longreach.”
To top of an excellent weekend in Bedourie, Cole was able to celebrate the win of Sedona in Alice Springs on Saturday.
Red Centre trainer Jess Gleeson has cared for a number of Cole’s horses, including Sedona, while he has toured Queensland.
“I watched the race on the phone,” Cole said.
“Some of the places out here we’ve been struggling a little bit with phone reception and things.”
Meanwhile, the two other winners on the Bedourie program were Protostar (Jake Pracey-Holmes) and Supreme Attraction (Jason Missen) from the Rodney Robb stable in Nyngan in north-western NSW.
Robb is well known to the NT racing community having raced horses in Darwin and Alice Springs in the past, and his horse Tintern Power (Jake Pracey-Holmes) finished third in the Bedourie Cup.
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