Search

show me:

Mixed Fortunes For Hawkesbury Trainers

3 minute read

The breaks certainly didn’t go the way of Hawkesbury trainer Jason Attard on Tuesday.

The Hawkesbury trainer’s 30th birthday celebrations last weekend must have seemed a distant memory when he was involved in a nasty trackwork fall on Tuesday morning.

Attard was riding an unraced two-year-old, giving him an educational piece of work at nothing more than three-quarter pace, when he stumbled near the winning post.

Jason Attard
Jason Attard Picture: Racing and Sports

The youngster unfortunately broke a leg and had to be put down whilst Attard was taken to Nepean Hospital where he was found to have fractured his right collarbone.

An examination next week will determine Attard requires surgery to have a plate inserted in his injured collarbone.

Until he regains full use of his right arm, he will be relying on his wife Lucy to run the stable.

The day didn’t improve for Attard as his sole representative at the Hawkesbury meeting on Tuesday My Milly Moo could finish only seventh in her Class 2 race over 1600m.

It was subsequently revealed that the front gates of the mare’s barrier had been slow to open, and she lost some ground.

Ever positive, Attard is hoping for better fortune at Scone’s two-day carnival later this week.

He is keen to secure a start with Reiby The Red in Friday’s $200,000 Scone Cup (1600m). Jeff Penza will ride him if he makes the field.

He will also start Reiby Rampart in Saturday’s $150,000 Luskin Star Stakes (1300m).

• PATIENCE is a virtue young Hawkesbury trainer Mitch Kearney clearly possesses.

It would be very tempting for a young trainer making his way in the industry as Kearney is doing to go to the well again with Tuesday’s impressive home track winner Eerised.

But he is sticking to his guns and is looking to the future with his promising three-year-old.

“That was his seventh run this preparation sicne he won first-up at Bathurst in February and is definitely going for a break,” Kearney said after Eerised had trounced his rivals with a last to first burst in the Mektronics Australia Benchmark 60 Handicap (2000m).

“It will give him the chance to mature and improve a bit more, and hopefully we can win some Saturday races with him next season.”

Kearney and his wife Desiree (after whom the gelding is named; it is spelt backwards) bred Eerised and race him with family and close friends.

Eerised is the third foal of their Tobougg mare Fabulash, whom they mated with Anabaa stallion Widden Valley.

Widden Valley, a $900,000 yearling, is out of the 2001 AJC Oaks winner Rose Archway and raced only five times for two Wyong wins and a Scone Guineas placing in 2010 before being retired.

Eerised dropped sharply in class on his last two starts including a fourth in the G3 Packer Plate (2000m) at Randwick last month.

Kearney wisely booked 3kg claimer Jean Van Overmeire to offset the three-year-old’s 61kg, and the experienced apprentice didn’t let him down.

Van Overmeire eased Eerised after jumping well from an outside barrier, and gave him plenty of time to settle.

Though still tailing the field approaching the home turn, the apprentice did not panic. He took him to the outside in the straight and Eerised unleashed a turn of foot indicative of a horse capable of winning better races.

He bolted home by nearly three lengths from Letter To Juliette and O’Reilly’s Angel.

Fellow Hawkesbury trainer Garry White’s hopes of a double were dashed when Eerised burst to the front.

White had to settle for second placing with his representative Letter To Juliette after scoring earlier in the program with Lady Chalfont.

With Mitchell Bell aboard, the Duporth filly was always in control in the Sieders Truck Repairs Provincial & Country Maiden Plate (1300m).

Lady Chalfont was having only her fifth start, and had been placed on her home track on April 13 before finishing sixth to Mia Rosa at Randwick on Anzac Day.

Racing and Sports

What’s gambling really costing you?

For free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit www.gamblinghelponline.org.au