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Randwick trainer John Thompson has gone inside the camp of rival Chris Waller in a bid to get an advantage in Thursday’s $150,000 Rowley Mile at Hawkesbury.
Thompson got in first and booked talented New Zealand apprentice Sam Weatherley, currently on loan to Waller, for his representative Special Missile in the Listed feature.
Waller, already the winner of two Rowley Miles with Snow Alert in 2010 and McCreery in 2016, has seven runners in the 15-horse field.
His other starters are Invinzabeel (Tye Angland), Alward (Kathy O’Hara), Amovatio (Lee Magorrian), Black On Gold (Tommy Berry) and Dagny (Jason Collett).
Godolphin’s last start winner Flow (Kerrin McEvoy) is heading the early betting.Special Missile, a five-year-old by Smart Missile, is a model of consistency. He has won five of his 20 starts and been placed on nine occasions.
Five of those placings have come from his last six starts, the latest when third to rivals Mister Sea Wolf and Flow in the Listed Winter Challenge (1500m) at Rosehill on July 28.Special Missile meets both those horses on 2.5kg better terms and is a Hawkesbury winner.
He has raced twice at the track, finishing second in a 1300m maiden in 2016 and landing a 1500m C1 in July last year.Special Missile has also trialled twice at Hawkesbury for a win and a second.
Thompson kept him up to the mark by trialling him at his home track at Randwick on August 13 when fifth to Mister Sea Wolf over 1250m.
Thompson’s gelding is Weatherley’s only mount at the meeting.
“Chris Waller did try and book Sam for one of his runners but we had already taken the mount on Special Missile,” the young jockey’s riding agent Drew Smith explained.“We’re happy to be on him.”
Topweight Red Excitement and Shiraz are early scratchings, giving a start to second emergency Dynamic Dynasty.Five jockeys riding in this year’s edition have already tasted success in the Rowley Mile.
Aside from Flow’s jockey Kerrin McEvoy, Kathy O’Hara scored in successive years on The Man (2005) and Fighting Fund (2006), Glyn Schofield (Show A Star) scored on Mouro in 2013, Tommy Berry was successful on McCreery (2016) and Tim Clark (Cismontane) partnered Arbeitsam to an easy victory last year.Gai Waterhouse and co-trainer Adrian Bott will be represented by Northwest Passage (Adam Hyeronimus) and Cismontane (Clark). Both are resuming and have gear changes.
Northwest Passage will race without blinkers, and Cismontane has a cross-over nose band back on again and a nasal strip off.Waterhouse has won the Rowley Mile on six occasions with Adamantly (2001), Fiery Venture (2003), Beauty Watch (2007), Rabbuka (2008), The Offer (2015) and Arbeitsam.
