Young gun trainers Clint Lundholm and Brett Robb are off to Royal Randwick in April for a shot at the $500,000 prizemoney on offer for the Newhaven Park Country Championship after Listen To The Band and Sizzle Minizzle qualified for the Final, before a big crowd on Sunday at Coonamble.
Both trainers are based at Dubbo, with Lundholm being reared at Coonamble and Robb formerly from Nyngan.
The Lundholm trained Listen To The Band is building a remarkable record winning, 5 of the 6 starts since an injury enforced 2 year absence from the racetrack.
Despite now being an 8 year old, Listen To The Band has only raced 9 times and is improving with every run while the Robb trained Sizzle Minizzle is also lightly raced and appears an outstanding prospect.
In the $150,000 Newhaven Park Western Racing Association Country Championships Qualifier over 1400 metres, Listen To The Band began quickly from a wide barrier and took the early lead from Boom Boom Basil, Amulet Street and Ferus.
Challenged in the straight, Listen To The Band (Jake Pracey-Holmes, $6.50) fought on gamely to win by a neck from Sizzle Minizzle (Brooke Stowe, $10) with the third, fourth and fifth placegetters, Smooth Esprit (Ben Looker, $21), Hit The Rim (Serg Lisnyy) and Watch Me Rumble (Ashley Morgan) all being trained by Clint Lundholm.
Jake Pracey-Holmes is riding in sensational form and he earlier combined with Clint Lundholm for an all the way with Avalicious ($2.20 favourite) from River Rocket (Braith Nock, $6) and Boho Chick (Grant Buckley, $7) in the 1400 metres Inland Petroleum Benchmark 58 Showcase Handicap.
Now a successful trainer at Wyong, Damien Lane began his career at Coonamble and he was back home for the day to win the 1100 metres Wellington Boot Prelude-2yo Handicap with Sparkingly.
Given a nice run behind the leader, Sparkingly (Grant Buckley, $3.80) raced clear to win by almost two lengths from Chandon Star (Clayton Gallagher, $17) and Devine Chops ($1.55 favourite).
Sparkingly is now exempt from the ballot for the $200,000 Wellington Boot on March 26, a race the popular Damien Lane won in 2021 with Sonnet Star.
Wrapping up a great days racing at Coonamble, the Brett Robb trained D’Arpano (Jake Barrett, $5.50) tracked the leaders then finished best to beat Hiraishin (Chelsea Hillier, $3.20 favourite) and In The Road (Jake Pracey-Holmes, $11) in the 1100 metres QUBE Agri Country Boosted Benchmark 58 Showcase Handicap.
By Col Hodges
