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Gold Coast trainer Bruce Hill added another NSW feature to his tally when wet track specialist Bodega Negra mastered a heavy track to win Sunday's $50,000 South Grafton Cup.
Hill has been plundering carnivals on the NSW north coast for some time, winning the 2011 Grafton Cup with Warrior Within and the 2016 Coffs Harbour Cup with Bodega Negra.
Originally from Victoria, Hill moved to Queensland and was stable foreman for Gerald Ryan for 10 years. When Ryan moved to Sydney he branched out on his own and has since won more than 500 races.
He has won 10 races in the Northern Rivers Racing Association zone this season among a total of 24 victories on all tracks, adding a double at Grafton on Sunday with Bodega Negra and Champagne Vega.
BODEGA NEGRA is now set to go after a second Coffs Harbour Cup on August 1 after the 8YO raced to an easy win on a wet track to beat fellow Gold Coast runner American Diva and last year's South Grafton Cup winner Cogliere.
Bodega Negra has now won 10 of his 91 starts and more than $524,000 prizemoney with six wins on soft or heavy tracks.
"He loves a wet track," said Hill. "He's been a great old horse for me and will be hard to beat at Coffs Harbour if we get another wet track.''
Former Sydney jockey Jon Grisedale, a youthful 55-year-old, continued his resurgence with a fine front running ride on Bodega Negra.
Grisedale and his trainer wife Donna moved to Coffs Harbour early this year and have a team of 12 horses in work at the north coast track.
He has now won the South Grafton Cup twice, scoring on Lockmar in 2009 for Sydney trainer Frank Gardner.
"We are loving it," Grisedale said of the new phase in his career.
Grisedale began his career as an apprentice with Bede Horan at Rosehill 39 years ago and has ridden more than 1300 winners.