GAI WATERHOUSE claimed a second Wyong Gold Cup yesterday courtesy of a daring ride from Nash Rawiller on Bianca, with the jockey and trainer out to play giant-killer at Randwick today.
Rawiller takes the ride on Waterhouse's classy mare Kishkat in the Chelmsford Stakes, where the Doncaster Handicap winner Triple Honour continues on the path to Cox Plate glory. TAB Fixed Odds has installed Triple Honour, a brilliant winner of the Premiere Stakes first-up, as the $1.65 favourite, with Gallant Tess at $3.20 and Kishkat $5.50 in the five-horse feature.
"She hasn't got the class of a horse like Triple Honour but on a heavy track over a mile, who knows," Rawiller said yesterday. "She is hard fit."
Kishkat has started only eight times and is looking to win her fifth race in a row, while Gallant Tess resumed in the Warwick Stakes with a gutsy short-neck second behind Sydney's premier galloper Racing To Win.
"I think she gained a lot of respect," Gallant Tess's jockey, Jeff Lloyd, said yesterday. "She has Triple Honour to contend with but if she can reproduce that first-up run, she'll make any horse pick up their feet. She is really doing well at home and I expect her to run well."
Lloyd picked up the winning ride on Lifeboat at Wyong yesterday due to Corey Brown failing to make the 53kg. Brown was fined $100 but should have little trouble paying for it after riding six of the 16 winners at the two-day Wyong Gold Cup meeting.
Brown is without a ride in the Chelmsford, while Triple Honour's jockey, Glen Boss, is not concerned about a heavy course proper at Randwick.
"He is two for two in heavy going," Boss said. "I just want the horse to do the right thing. We've taken the blinkers off and I'm sure he'll race true. He has got to start doing things properly if he is going to go up against the real good horses."
Rawiller summed it up perfectly on Bianca when allowing the five-year-old to stride to the lead along the inside at the 800m mark with Brown on the $2.20 favourite Enzedex Eagle on the outside.
"I didn't want to be left wondering what might have been," Rawiller said. "The horse went well and truly fast enough to take advantage."
Bianca was then headed in the straight by Keepin' The Dream, whose jockey, Jim Cassidy, looked at the official photo finish and left the stewards' room satisfied a head separated the pair on the finishing line, with Enzedex Eagle a further half head away in third place.
"He [Keepin' The Dream] definitely headed me, she showed great fight, 50m out I thought she was beat," Rawiller said.
Brown said of Enzedex Eagle: "I do believe he accelerates better on top of the ground."
Rawiller said he had no doubt Bianca could progress towards The Metropolitan, noting "she has got more to do".
■ Australian racing's record-making jockey Robert Thompson, who is heading to Korea, missed the first race at Wyong due to attending a civic reception by the home town council yesterday.
Cessnock City Council honoured the 50-year-old for breaking Jack Thompson's - no relation - Australian record of 3322 career wins. Thompson achieved the feat in July when winning on Promised at Port Macquarie. Thompson, who started off as a 14-year-old when apprenticed to his grandfather Norm Collins, will break new ground next month when representing Australia in a two-day jockeys' challenge in Korea.
"I'm very honoured and proud," Thompson said yesterday. "Five countries have been invited. The others are Hong Kong, Japan, the US and South Africa. There are four races involved, two on the Saturday and two on the Sunday, it should be another great experience."
Thompson has represented Australia in Singapore/Malaysia and New Zealand.
■ Trainer Pat Webster's son Wayne was interviewed by Racing NSW officials yesterday in regard to taking out a dual trainer's licence with his father.
Greg Lee also met with the ruling body in the first step to gaining a dual licence with his brother Jim who, like his brother in-law Webster, trains out of Randwick.
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