3 minute read

Trainer and jockey quotes following the Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final won by Picaroon at Flemington on Thursday.

Race Result:

1st: Picaroon (B Shinn/T Dabernig) - $8
2nd: Euphoric (M Zahra/G Eurell) - $4.40EF
3rd: Lady Jones (C Williams/S Brown) - $8

Winning Time: 1:37.01 Last 600m: N/A

Margins: Long Head x Head

.@dabernigracing & @blake_shinn combine to win the $500k Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final with Picaroon pic.twitter.com/AM8Dvf4Il9

— Racing.com (@Racing) November 9, 2023

Winning Trainer: Tom Dabernig

What the win means: "It's very special, moreso for our team, my wife, my parents, Richard White the owner, he's a local dentist in Warrnambool and he bred the horse as well and then all of our team, I've got Dara and Tash and all of them, they all played a part in that, Julien our farrier, for us only having the one runner for the week it's been a little bit of pressure and it's nice when it all lines up and you can pull it off.

"Richard sent her to stud to get her in foal and that is how she ended up with me."

Going out on his own: "We don't do it for the money but I must say it does come in handy, we're just a small country stable now and we're enjoying what we do, my kids are involved, my wife and her parents, it's a big team effort.

Country Series: "It certainly is a great incentive. I think there should be more of it. Even the heats, it is hard to even get in the race. They are super competitive.

"You can see today, it was a big field, well contested and I must thank Blake Shinn. He was very confident before the race. I always go in pretty conservative. He rode it beautifully and gave her every chance."

Potential next run: "It's not the end of the carnival now that they've extended it so there's a Group Three mare's race over a mile at Sandown, that'd be good to get a little bit of black type."

Winning Jockey: Blake Shinn

"We believed that she had the right form to win it. Just delighted. Tom is a very nice man.

"Any horse in the race could win it. It just came to draws and luck in running. It just went our way today.

"It's a great week to be involved in and it's just nice to get a couple of winners and especially in this race, it's for the country trainers and it's worth great money and Tom Dabernig is a great bloke, prepped this horse really well, targeted the race.

"They're not easy to win these big ones because a lot of them are targeted to this race but fortunately we got the luck on the day."

"We just had to allow the race to unfold, I was a little bit deep early but I got cover… I was just able to flow into a nice one out, one back spot, the speed of the race wasn't that quick early, her tactical speed just allowed her to get into that spot.

"She had to be brave, the leader kicked strong and put up a good fight but what I loved, she put her ears back and wanted to win and that's what got over the line, her determination.

"When the chips were down she really wanted to win."