Looker’s dream Cup run
JOCKEY Ben Looker’s longheld Grafton dream has come true.
The 28-year-old jockey produced a brilliant ride to win the $160,000 Grafton Cup (2350m) on Kiwi raider Sacred Day yesterday.
Looker moved from Glen Innes on the NSW northern tablelands as a 12-year-old to work for Grafton trainer John Shelton, who had also moved from Glen Innes years before.
He had his first ride at 14 when apprenticed to Shelton, and he owed all his success to his former master.
“Can’t describe it,” Looker said when interviewed trackside after the Cup win.
He could see Shelton just a few metres away, his mum Debbie and dad Michael “over there” and his wife Priscilla waiting to give him a huge hug.
Looker achieved his dream of winning the Grafton Cup by virtue of a great ride, tracking back to the inside on Sacred Day ($13) when he spotted an opening. “I was stuck behind a slow one at the 800m but then I saw Matt (McGillivray on Sopressa) go and I followed him,” Looker said.
“Then the gap on the inside opened up.”
Looker said winning the Cup had been a boyhood dream.
“I hoped Victorem was going to come here as well and win the Ramornie (on Wednesday). It would have been great to win both.”
Sacred Day is trained by Tony Pike at Cambridge in New Zealand and has now won four of his 16 starts.
He held on for a half-head win from Sopressa ($6) with Chris Waller’s Vaucluse Bay ($5.50) third, edging out $4 race favourite Igraine.
Pike had a great Queensland winter carnival, bringing a large team over the Tasman and winning the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap with The Bostonian.
“It’s been a super carnival,” said Pike, who is the ninth New Zealand trainer to win the Grafton Cup.
“I’ve got to thank Michael Beattie (Clarence River Jockey Club CEO at Grafton).
“He came over in November and asked us if we had any horses for the Grafton Cup.
“He said we needed one going through his grades.”
Sacred Bay had won some nice races in NZ and fitted the exact bill.