Dream run as trainer continues hot streak
THE Cannon Park stable of Fred Wieland is now suddenly one of the more in-form teams across north Queensland.
The experienced local trainer has had a hot streak of late, with five winners since June 25, including Dream I Can, which got the money at Home Hill on Saturday afternoon.
The Wieland yard went through much of the back end of 2018 without finding a winner but that dry spell is a thing of the past now, with those five victories coming from the trainer’s past 16 starters on race day. All but one of those recent winners have come in the leading orange silks of north Queensland, which was the case on Saturday, with Dream I Can at Burdekin Race Club.
The six-year-old brown gelding put in a decent effort behind District on a wet Innisfail track last Sunday and backed it up in the Benchmark 65 Handicap (1180m), with champion comeback rider Graham Kliese on board.
“I thought he could win this race … the form behind District is pretty good after he ran second in an Open at Cairns on Thursday,” Wieland said.
“It was a beautiful ride from Graham.”
The drive south was worthwhile for FNQ trainers on Saturday as Ammate, for Tablelands combination Sharlee and Wanderson D’Avila, made it two victories from his past three starts with a win in the Benchmark 50 Handicap (900m).
“It was a shame he could not get a run the other day at Cairns because I thought he could have won that race,” Wanderson said.
“I was a little bit worried about the weight, 62kg, but he got there in the end.”
Meanwhile, the Cooktown Amateur Turf Club late last week voted to run its annual Cup in 2020.
While most of the once-ayear iconic country race tracks have lost their meetings due to the zoned racing and coronavirus shutdown, Cooktown will press ahead. When Racing Queensland’s calendar for the season came out a few weeks ago, Cooktown was handed its meeting, to be run on Saturday, November 7, and it was finally ticked off by the club’s committee last week.
The 2019 Cooktown Cup was not run following a fall earlier in the day involving a number of jockeys and horses, which led to the rest of the program being cancelled after four races.
IT WAS A SHAME HE COULD NOT GET A RUN THE OTHER DAY AT CAIRNS BECAUSE I THOUGHT HE COULD HAVE WON THAT RACE. JOCKEY WANDERSON D’AVILA ON AMMATE.