Having landed five winners on Kununurra Cup Day for the second time in six years, Darwin trainer Dick Leech will happily tell anyone that lightning can indeed strike twice.
Back in 2016, Leech left the far north-east corner of Western Australia with a handful of winners, and that included victory in the Cup with Idatrice.
Last Saturday, Leech recorded five wins once again, with WA jockey Kyra Yuill guiding six-year-old gelding Lunch Session to victory in the Cup.
The veteran NT trainer is a longtime supporter of the Kununurra Race Club, and apart from taking horses to the west most years, he also considers the trip as a holiday.
Kununurra, with a population of around 5500, is 514km west of Katherine and is a further 45km along the Victoria Highway once you cross the border that divides the NT and WA.
The Kununurra Race Club normally conducts the annual Ladies Day and Cup Day meetings in late August, and the racecourse itself is the only grassed surface in WA north of Geraldton.
READ: Crich delighted with Ladies Day win at Kununurra
There was no racing there in 2020 and 2021 because of COVID, and Kununurra picked up a third meeting this year – scheduled for this Saturday – following of the cancellation of the annual Wyndham meeting 106km up the road.
Six years ago, Leech and former Darwin jockey Stephen Ridler teamed up to win nine of the 14 races that took place over the two Saturdays in Kununurra.
Winding the clock forward to 2022, Leech kicked things off on August 20 when he trained a winning double with Mazy Motion, with Queensland jockey Tessa Townsend in the saddle, and Write Your Name, with Darwin jockey Vanessa Arnott on board.
He came within a whisker of having a truly spectacular day on the six-event program with Lethal Encounter (Townsend), Lunch Session (Arnott), Halgard (Arnott) and War Games (Townsend) finishing second, while Spill The Money (Arnott) and Signor Fangio (Townsend) finished third.
Last weekend, the wheel turned for Leech when WA jockeys Kyra Yuill, Angela Johnston and Jerry Noske combined to guide nine of his 11 starters to either a first, second or third placing on the six-race card.
Signor Fangio (Yuill), Write Your Name (Johnston), Halgard (Yuill) and Coin Cellector (Noske) triumphed, Spill The Money (Yuill) and Feed The Monster (Yuill) came second, and Lethal Encounter (Johnston) and Madam Mischief (Yuill) finished third.
Feed The Monster in fact dead-heated with the Tayarn Halter-trained Zou Der Zee (Jade Hampson) from Darwin in the race won by Coin Collector.
To cap off a momentous day Lunch Session (Yuill), the $2.10 favourite who won over 2000m (0-76) on Alice Springs Cup Day on May 1, produced a dominant performance to win the $32,500 Kununurra Cup (1800m) for the 0-62 class.
Kununurra Cup race replay | August 27, 2022 | Lunch Session (1st)
With Kerry Petrick’s $9.50 hope Boom Boom Sweet (Phillip Crich) on his inside and Darryn Pateman’s $6.50 chance Yankee Lima (Noske) on his outside, Lunch Session shared the lead before turning out of the home straight and was then a clear leader up the side before entering the back straight.
Lunch Session, who could only manage a third in four starts during the recent Darwin Cup Carnival, was never headed and saluted by five and a half lengths from fellow NT galloper Boom Boom Sweet and Pateman’s $9.50 starter Kennedy (Simone Altieri).
READ: Clarke ends superb Darwin Cup Carnival with ultimate prize
WA trainer Pateman, winner of the $100,000 Broome Cup (2200m) with Ombudsman on August 13, had three runners in the Kununurra Cup with $5.50 hopeful Dashing Image (Jessica Gray) coming fourth and Yankee Lima tiring to finish seventh.
Remarkably, Leech may have ended up with six winners had Spill The Money finished second and not third ahead of the Darwin-trained New Roman (Crich) from the Kerry Petrick stable in one of the races that was originally won by the Tayarn Halter-trained Raffalli (Hampson).
Unfortunately, Raffalli was disqualified due to a discrepancy surrounding Hampson’s weight following the race and as a result the win was awarded to New Roman with Spill The Money promoted to second place.
Leech took 14 horses to Kununurra and there is no denying the fact it is paying dividends.
“The horses are thriving over here – they’re appreciating the warm weather,” he said on Wednesday.
“They were probably a little bit underdone for the first meeting, but they’ve picked up.
“Most of those who ran on Saturday were going to be a lot more competitive.
“I thought if we got three we’ll be right, but yeah, to win five was great.
“Lunch Session was impressive, but Kyra rode the horse to a tee.
“My brother Darryl, he’s got a half share in Lunch Session.
“I thought he was going to jump over the fence when it won – even though it’s only a little Cup there’s just the buzz of winning it.”
Leech will have 11 runners in the six races scheduled for this Saturday and is clearly hoping for further success.
They include Write Your Name (Race 1), Coin Collector and Feed The Monster (Race 2), Lethal Encounter and Miracoli (Race 3), Signor Fangio and War Games (Race 4), Spill The Money and Superior Power (Race 5), and Lunch Session and Mazy Motion (Race 6).
As mentioned, Leech always enjoys his trips to Kununurra, but all good things come to an end and it won’t be long before he packs up for the long trek back to Darwin.
“I love coming over here – it’s my holiday every year,” Leech said.
“Kununurra is a picturesque little place and the locals look after us.
“A good country course – they’ve maintained the track for two years since COVID.
“It’s been good, it’s been really good.
“There were close to 2000 people at Cup Day on Saturday.
“Someone was saying they took over $100,000 over the bar, which is good for the club.
“I go out, the staff got out every day, looking at different things.
“We’re going up to Lake Argyle on Thursday – do the cruise around the Lake – we do that every year.
“Next week is going to be a bugger, we’ve got to go home.
“It is starting to get warm here now, it’s getting up to 35C and 36C.
“The horses will go to the paddock when we get home.
“The only disappointing aspect has been the injury to Halgard following his win on Saturday – he’s done a tendon.”
It’s an expensive exercise to get horses to Kununurra with Leech also lining up a rendezvous at Katherine with Brad Cooper from Darwin Horse Floats, who brought up four horses who were in work in Alice Springs.
Leech has stables in the Top End and the Red Centre.
Securing the services of jockeys to ride in the WA country town puts a strain on his hip pocket as well, but according to Leech, the Kununurra Race Club is “chipping in”.
“Getting jockeys out of Perth is probably the easiest part,” he said.
“Kyra can’t come back this week because she’s riding at Kalgoorlie.
“She’d love to come back, but there’s no plane leaving here Saturday night to get her back to Perth to go to Kalgoorlie the next day.
“I had to book Tessa Townsend from Brisbane on Tuesday and I’ve got Jessie Philpot coming by plane from Alice Springs via Darwin.”
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