After 10 wins in Alice Springs a year ago, it was no surprise to see Port Augusta trainer Trevor Montgomerie return to the Red Centre.
The Alice Springs Turf Club’s Cup Carnival starts on April 8 with five meetings scheduled for Pioneer Park, culminating with the $110,000 Alice Springs Cup (2000m) and $100,000 Pioneer Sprint (1200m) on April 30.
Montgomerie’s best wins last year were with Addictions in the $30,000 Queen Of The Desert 0-76 Handicap (1200m) for the fillies and mares and Tanner in a $25,000 weight-for-age event over 1200m.
Tanner then finished fourth behind Smuggling in the Pioneer Sprint, but in general Montgomerie exceeded his expectations with A Thousand Degrees, Oddsock, Well Known, City Jet, Bryan’s Babe, Waterbom and Lancer also proving competitive.
Making his first trip to Alice Springs in early March last year, Montgomerie headed north much earlier arriving on February 11 with A Thousand Degrees, Well Known, Lancer, Festival Of Light, Mr Nafplion, Variara and Zoutons.
Tanner, Hot Socks and Fluffy Bunny Feet will soon arrive, and Montgomerie is also awaiting the arrival of a three-year-old filly.
“We decided to come back, we really enjoyed it last year, I enjoyed the people,” Montgomerie said.
“Port Lincoln was touch and go, but we had to travel too far.
“The horses were ready to run, so we decided to come up here.
“Even though we won a few races last year, I still would have come back if I didn’t win a race because the people are so friendly and the jockeys are very nice people.
“I’ve told a lot of people back home that they should venture up here with a couple of horses for the carnival.
“I said it’s good racing, the track’s good, it’s a nice spot and good people.”
The trainer kicked things off in style last Saturday when eight-year-old gelding Festival Of Light (Casey Hunter) basically led from start to finish for a dominate win over 1400m (BM76).
After a last-start win in the Ceduna Cup (1600m) in SA on January 28, Festival Of Light ($6) proved too good for Will Savage’s $8 hope Fantasy Eagle (Ianish Luximon) and Terry Gillett’s $4.40 fancy Great Buy (Dakota-Lee Gillett).
Alice Springs R5 replay | 18/2/2023 | Festival Of Light (1st)
Greg Connor’s Flying Start (Jessie Philpot), Alice Springs’ Horse of the Year for 2022, lined up in the six-horse field and could only manage a fifth as the $2 favourite.
“Festival Of Light, it will likely go to the St Patrick’s Day Cup in a month’s time – it would be very hard to beat in that, I would say,” Alice Springs race-caller Dylan Bairstow said following the win.
“It just loves the dirt – it led and dictated, and was too good.”
A Thousand Degrees (Dan Morgan), starting at $6.50, did little wrong when second over 1000m (BM54), $10 chance Mr Nafplion (Morgan) was fifth in a 1200m maiden, and $18 hope Well Known (Paul Denton) was eighth over 1400m (0-58).
Montgomerie was more than pleased with how his team fared.
“I was pretty happy with them,” he said.
“Well Known needed a run – I knew that, but it would have been nice to run him over 1200m.
“Paul (Denton) never knocked him around, we just think one more run and then he should be ready to rock and roll.
“The weight (61.5kg) probably killed old A Thousand Degrees.
“Festival Of Light has won over the short course, but since I’ve had him we’ve got him up over a mile.
“I’m even thinking seriously of having a crack at the (Alice Springs) Cup.
“He won the the Ceduna Cup pretty well.
“He ran third at Gawler and I could have went back to Adelaide, but I’d never won the Ceduna Cup out of all the Cups on the west coast.
“I thought it was my only chance for a while and I elected to go over there.
“The money was different, but the prestige is not though.”
Montgomerie has nominated Variara and Zoutons for this weekend and they will most likely start.
A Thousand Degrees has also been nominated and could back up, while Lancer is not ready and will most likely feature on March 11.
Before heading home this year, Montgomerie intends to remain in the NT longer.
“I’ll stay here until Tennant Creek this year,” he said.
“I’ll leave three horses up here and see what’s racing and then I’ll take three up to Darwin, I reckon.”
Tennant Creek Cup Day is scheduled for May 13, with the Darwin Cup Carnival kicking off on July 8.
Montgomerie indicated that Darwin-based jockey Casey Hunter would more than likely relocate to the Red Centre during his stay to fill the role as stable rider.
“I probably haven’t got the horses to go into most of the features, I didn’t want to take a big mob of horses here, I just want to enjoy myself, if we get a winner we get a winner,” he said.
“I thought my horses were pretty competitive last year – they all handled the track and we’d just go back and have another crack.
“I’m not saying that I’m going to do as good as I did last year, but if we win a couple of races I’ll be happy.
“Just support the race club – that’s what it’s all about.”
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