EPIC Dan was third in the Lightning Handicap at the May 27 Gunnedah Cup and if he returns to Riverside on Monday to try and win the $20,000 AgQuip Cup, he would do so with a bit more “pudding”.
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The Allan Kehoe-trained Wyong gelding, a six-year-old old son of Home On The Grange, lumped 58kg when third to Murvate and I’m Imogen in that Cup-day scamper. For the AgQuip Cup, he has received 61kg.
The winner of nine of his 36 starts for $135,655 in prizemoney, he is already a winner at Gunnedah.
In three starts at Riverside he has never finished out of a place, also winning a 1000m Lightning at the same meeting last year when he carried 57kg.
Gunnedah Jockey Club secretary Mark Storey is ecstatic with the AgQuip Cup field and believes it will be a strong betting race with a number of class horses engaged. “I am very excited about our Ag Quip Cup,” he said.
“Barricade has won here before too and Epic Dan won the Lightning here on Cup day last year when the original Gunnedah Cup meeting was washed out and then transferred to this Monday date before AgQuip.
“It was a very good day for us, our turnover was something like $1.3 to $1.4 million.”
While Epic Dan copped 61kg and would have to go an extra 300m in the Cup, Scone-trained Barricade, also a winner at Gunnedah at his only start, would have to lump 60kg if he starts.
Brotherly Secret (Shane Edmonds), Comacina (Peter Cleal), Desert Marshal (Jane Clement), Gadfly (Paul Perry) and Radiant Choice (Stirling Osland) all copped 59kg, with last-start winners Free Billy and Track Flash (both trained by Peter Sinclair) receiving 56kg and 54kg respectively.
Storey confirmed that there had been 19 nominations, and 152 in total for the seven-race TAB meeting.
The 2015 Gunnedah Cup winner Pippi’s Pride, prepared by Stephen Gleeson at Muswellbrook, as well as this year’s Gunnedah Cup runner-up Rockatorio (second to Unbiased) are among the nominations for the Cup.
Randwick Highway Handicap winner All Stand (Todd Howlett) and Lonely Orphan (Lesley Jeffriess) would add more class to the field.
A bus will pick up racegoers from the Golf Club, Wolseley Park and McDonald’s. The first round of pick-ups starts at 12 noon and the second round starts at 12.30pm.
Entry to the course will be free.
