An eleventh-hour jockey change didn’t hinder the chances of Country Bumpkin (NZ) (St Reims) at Hawera on Sunday.
Jack Power was booked to ride the 10-year-old, however, he was involved in a fall in the race prior and Portia Matthews was called upon to replace him on Country Bumpkin in the Garden Edge Steeplechase (3900m).
Matthews took a confident approach aboard the son of St Reims and took him straight to the front, opening up several lengths on the field for the majority of the journey.
The Kevin Myers-trained pair of Hey Happy and Mandorani took chase in the closing stages but couldn’t catch Country Bumpkin, who scored a four-length victory.
Country Bumpkin was having his first outing since running sixth in the Grand National Hurdles (4200m) at Riccarton last month and trainer Niall Quinn is now eyeing another Prestige Jumping assignment.
“Everything just didn’t go his way down in Christchurch, but I have been really pleased with him, his work coming into today was very good,” Quinn said.
“It has always been a pretty good track for him. He won his second steeplechase here two years ago.
“It was really unfortunate for Jack Power. He was quite sore, so he didn’t want to risk it. I thought Portia gave him a really good ride and rated him really well.
“He likes to do his own thing. He is pretty versatile and you can ride him anywhere.”
Country Bumpkin returned to racing following a two-year injury enforced hiatus in May and has now won three of his eight starts since his return.
Quinn has been rapt with his progress and is hoping he can put the cherry on his comeback when he heads to the Great Northern meeting at Te Rapa in a fortnight.
“He won his first steeplechase and we were pretty confident with him going forward and then he had a bit of tendon trouble unfortunately,” Quinn said.
“He had two years off and then he won his first two races this season within six days. He is a handy and fun horse for the group of people that race him.
“We will just get him home and assess things, but we might have a look at the Northern.”
