THE Horsham Cup returns to its traditional Sunday meeting at the weekend, with some of Victoria’s biggest trainers flocking to the Horsham Racecourse.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Wimmera trainer Paul Preusker will carry the hopes for Horsham in the cup, with the horse he has trained and also owns Miss Coolangatta to start from barrier four.
“It’s always a good day and a good night,” he said.
“For me I grew up here and you like to try and win it. Generally if you can’t win it you won’t bother running it.
“This year with Miss Coolangatta I thought she was the right horse and after a win I backed her in at Bendigo recently, but she flopped on me a bit there.”
Miss Coolangatta has good form with four placings in the past five races.
READ MORE: Fashion is the focus for the Horsham Cup
After Magic Consol won Horsham Cups, the horse has gone on to bigger and better things and has now won three Melbourne metropolitan races in a row since June.
“Magic Consol won a couple in a row here and the Horsham Cup can be a kick off for Miss Coolangatta in a tougher handicap race,” Preusker said.
“If they can stand up to that standard, they will normally go on further. There are a lot of good trainers in Victoria and it is tough. Darren Weir will have horses here but there are many trainers here you have to worry about.”
Weir will have three contenders in the $60,000 Horsham Cup in Another Coldie, Ormito and Top Prospect.
The Matthew Williams-trained Our Bottino returns to the Horsham Cup, looking for back-to-back wins after breaking the track record last year.
Stawell trainers Terry and Karina O’Sullivan will also fancy their chances of a win at the Horsham Cup with Patch Adams. The six-year-old gelding has acquired more than $250,000 in prize money but has had an inconsistent year.
Free Willy, trained by Nathan Hobson, takes solid form into the cup with two wins in the past four races.
Wimmera trainer Simon Gebert has runners in races four and five, while Preusker will have runners in every race on the day.
The O’Sullivans will have runners in the cup as well as races one and seven.
Weir will have 14 runners across the day.
Dean Holland will be the jockey for Miss Coolangatta, while Horsham jockey Christine Puls will take the saddle on Patch Adams. Puls will also team up with Preusker in other races. Stawell-based jockey Linda Meech will also be in action on the day.
The Horsham and District Racing Club’s track and facilities manager James Hibberd said the track was in a good state ahead of Sunday.
“We have nice grass coverage this year and it’s a bit thicker than last year’s Horsham Cup,” he said.
“We’ve had a fair bit of traffic over it as a training facility but it has recovered well.”
There has been some heavy rain the past few weeks, with Hibberd confident the track would hold up well throughout the eight races.
“The last fortnight we have had a couple of heavy downpours which has helped the track come up well – there’s nothing better than a bit of rain,” he said.
“Keeping the track in that good zone is a time game. It’s in the good zone now and we will monitor that with some irrigation to make sure it stays there come Sunday.”