Persistency Pays

Date: 05-Oct-2023

MIDWEEK metropolitan racing continued at Ipswich on Wednesday with an eight-race card, where punters had the better of things across most of the day.

Odds-on pops Highland Cathedral ($1.75) and Encoder ($1.55) opened proceedings, before Try Everything ($2.60) and Russian Sub ($2.60) added to the tally later in the day. Kipling’s Journey ($3.50), Thankful Heart ($4.60) and Arcarius ($4.80) were also well in the market.

Annabel Neasham’s team, under the watchful eye of Queensland stable manager Todd Pollard, had a perfect day out, with both of their runners – Highland Cathedral and Thankful Heart – both getting the cash.

Damien Thornton went home with the biggest spoils among the jockeys, steering Encoder and Cunnamulla Fella ($7.50) to victory.

As mentioned in our Tuesday preview, Jag Guthmann-Chester has been in stellar form and he continued his winning sequence when he guided Thankful Heart to victory.

Persistency paid for Toowoomba trainer Harry Richardson and connections of Russian Sub, who managed to break his maiden at start number 11. The four-year-old son of Russian Revolution had been a model of consistency, placing in eight o his previous 10 starts, but breaking through for that first win had been a source of frustration. This had been heightened by the horse being first past the post in a Doomben maiden back in April, only to have the race taken off him in the stewards’ room. Justin Stanley kept him out of trouble yesterday and Russian Sub rewarded his backers with a comfortable win.

Kipling’s Journey had been knocking on the door this preparation and he found his right race in the BOQ Winston Glades Class 5 Handicap, leading his rivals a merry dance to land the prize for jockey Adin Thompson and his biggest supporters Peter and Will Hulbert.

Wednesday’s raceday had an extra touch of colour, with everyone in the Ipswich Turf Club team – including the barrier boys - sporting the very distinctive “This is a Conversation Starter” (TIACS) shirts – as they will at every race meeting through the month of October.

The club is proud to support TIACS, which is a mental health counselling service for a wide range of workers, including those in the racing industry. Money raised during the month goes towards funding the crucial counselling work done by the team of TIACS for those in need.

Ipswich conducts another Wednesday metro next week, with the rail moving out to the 6m position.

Back to list