If you grew up in racing in the Northwest of the state, then the go to meeting in any racing year was almost without doubt the Walcha Cup Meeting.
With a bookmakers ring that was almost 200 metres long there are literally hundreds of stories of huge plunges both successful and unsuccessful at the once a year meeting.
Whilst those days have sadly passed it still takes a smart horse to get the prize at Walcha and last Friday’s cup day proved to be a bonanza for Grafton based trainers.
Greg Kilner was first to celebrate when Spills scored a tough victory in the BM58 1700m. Ridden by Matt McGuren Spills was given the run of the race in the one by one before McGuren went for home near the 400m with Spills establishing what turned out to be a winning break.
It was the third win for Spills since he joined the Kilner yard from Western Australia. It is fair to say Greg has done an amazing job with the gelding which took eleven starts to break his maiden.
Grafton’s next winner also involved a McGuren this time in the female version when Sam McGuren saddled up the Walcha Cup 1440m winner in Casirina.
The eight year old gelding was having his first run for team McGuren and his second run from a spell. Casirina joined the stable following his first up defeat at Port Macquarie with his primary target this preparation being the Walcha Cup.
McGuren who had been apprentice to Casirina’s managing owner Ross Stitt was happy to take the gelding knowing a trip up the mountain was very much on the cards. Ross had been keen to have the services of Matt McGuren but when the grey got the minimum weight they were forced to look elsewhere.
Mikaylia Weir had already ridden a feature winner for Stitt on Single Spirit on the 2016 Wellington Cup so there was no issue heading in that direction.
Weir produced an almost perfect ride on Casirina giving him an economical run midfield the fence before working into clear air near the 400m and the big grey did the rest storming down the outside to win running away.
McGuren now however has the difficult task of finding suitable races for Casirina has he finds his way back to the top of the benchmarks.
