3 minute read

It's hard to beat experience!

Hawkesbury trainer Peter Green queried jockey Mathew Cahill before today's Benchmark 58 Handicap (1000m) at Bathurst if he needed to avoid the inside section of the track in the straight on his runner My Little Racer – and got an emphatic response.

"Mathew said 'no' as there was nothing wrong with the inside part," Green said as he drove home a winner.

"So I left everything in Mathew's hands."

As if to back up his statement, Cahill, the successful country-based jockey, produced the ride of the day to return Green's mare to the winning list.

He hugged the fence on My Little Racer  ($11) from the outset and didn't bother heading out wide on straightening.

Cahill found a gap between the first two horses near the inside, and the mare burst through and put the issue beyond doubt.

Cahill's decision was vindicated as the second and third placegetters Sharpshooter  ($4.20 favorire) and fellow Hawkesbury representative, Claire Lever's She's Sharp ($8.50), both came down the outside section of the track.

My Little Racer, a six-year-old daughter of Eavesdropper, has now won four races.

She won her first two starts in 2018 for her former Hawkesbury trainer Bronwyn Mackie, and Green took over the mare's preparation when she decided to take a break and left the area.

"Friends at Camden RSL wanted to get into a horse, and we were able to buy My Little Racer," Green said.

"But it hasn't been an easy time with her this season.

"She bled after winning at Orange last October, and incurred the mandatory three months' ban.

"I had given her two runs this time back, and had some trouble with her feed.

"So I changed her feed, and she picked up."

Cahill rode My Little Racer when she finished last at Queanbeyan on April 15, and Green freshened her and was confident she was ready to run well today.

"The mare definitely races best fresh," Green said.

"She doesn't perform second-up, so I will probably freshen her again and look for another suitable race."

. Hawkesbury's newest Group 1 winning trainer Edward Cummings has two more Group 1 runners at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

Dark Rebel  (Ben Thompson) drew the inside barrier in the $1m JJ Atkins Stakes (1600m), and stablemate Three Wise Men (Jim Byrne) came up with barrier nine in the 14-horse field.