Duo do big bush miles
AFTER being bowled over by the stablemate in an early heat of the Battle of the Bush series, Mackay gelding Mason’s Chance has had to cover more than 3000km to reach the $ 100,000 final at Doomben today.
A last start win at Barcaldine earned Mason’s Chance his spot in the field, giving trainer Olivia Cairns two runners after Stellar Knight’s earlier win at Home Hill.
“It was the owner of Mason’s Chance that wanted to aim at this series. It was his mission all along, but I thought I probably needed to take another one to travel with him,” Cairns ( pictured) said.
“Stellar went around in everything before the Home Hill race because you needed five country runs before you could go in a country qualifier.
“He started every week wherever a country meeting was on. One week he was weighted with 69.5kg and he won ( with a 4kg claim). I absolutely hammered him and the first qualifier he ran in, he won, at the expense of Mason.”
The result of that race meant Stellar Knight was able to keep his final tilt ticking over with runs at Mackay and Rockhampton, while “poor old Mason had to travel halfway around Aus- tralia,” running in qualifiers at Emerald, Home Hill, Thangool and Bowen before finally winning at Barcaldine.
“The last one at Barcaldine, we nearly couldn’t do it, because I had horses in at Rocky on the Friday and four in at Townsville on the Saturday the same day as Barcaldine and horses in at Cairns on the Monday and we just don’t have the staff to be away from home that long,” Cairns said.
“Usually Barcaldine is a trip where we go the day before, because it’s a seven- hour drive. But we didn’t have a choice. That horse went to Townsville and my partner left at five ( o’clock) Saturday morning. He got there about 12.30, he was there for an hour and a half, he raced, he won, he got back on the float and he got home at 11.15 that night. It was a big day.”
Cairns left Mackay on Wednesday with the two horses and said the latest trip would not be an issue, given the mileage the horses had done.
“The trip down here won’t worry my horses anyway. They are well seasoned to it,” she said.
The pair are among the top three in betting for today’s final with Ladbrokes and like having two children, Cairns refuses to split the pair.
“Every time they have met Stellar has beaten Mason, but there’s never been a big margin between them. On those days, Stellar got the better run.
“To win something prestigious like this on such a big day would be great. We don’t have the calibre of horse to be able to bring down on a day like this, so it would be quite memorable.”