Cult hero hunts for $5m lift
TRAINERS Toby and Trent Edmonds have less than a fortnight to get cult Queensland galloper The Harrovian up to speed in the $5m All-star Mile at The Valley.
The Harrovian built up an enormous support base during an 11-race winning streak, which started in Cairns on July 19 last year and ran through to a listed race at Eagle Farm on Boxing Day.
The Harrovian’s exploits led his fans to vote him into the top 10 All-star Mile contenders, which guaranteed him a place in the 15-strong line-up at The Valley on March 13.
But The Harrovian finished mid-field in the Group 3 Shaftesbury Avenue Stakes.
Toby Edmonds said The Harrovian was not disgraced at Flemington, having little space in the straight until his winning chance had passed.
He said The Harrovian’s owners remained philosophical despite the end of the gelding’s winning streak. “They’re OK, they got him cheap and he’s won over $700,000 for them,” Edmonds said.
COWBOYS halfback Jake Clifford believes the club still has a fair bit to work on, but the early signs of his partnership with Michael Morgan were good in the Cowboys’ trial win over the Broncos.
There may have been a few nerves go through the camp when Clifford put his bomb out on the full off the Cowboys’ first set with the ball.
But the resilience he showed to move on from the mistake became the running theme of the night for the Cowboys.
Clifford was solid in the first half, setting up the structures behind the play-the-ball to free Morgan up to expose edge defenders with his running game.
The young halfback has yet to have a full season partnering his skipper due to injury, but he said the combination was coming along.
“Morgo is a great player to play alongside (and) the more games we get to play alongside each other the more the connection will grow,” Clifford told Cowboys Media.
“I felt really good, I feel like the work we have done in the pre-season has really paid off.
“We still have a lot to work on and that was a little step to see how the pre-season worked out and the new systems we have work out.”
YOUNG Blackhawks fullback Ragsy Wavik woke up on
Saturday excited to make his first step up into the under-21s.
Little did he know by the end of the night he would have caught the eye of a Cowboys legend and come off the bench for their Queensland Cup side.
It was a meteoric rise for the teenager, who is preparing to help steer his school side Kirwan High to a third-straight state title this year.
Wavik was “chucked in the deep end” with the under-21s, making his debut at fullback and scoring a solo effort in their 44-16 drubbing of the Northern Pride.
“It was unreal. I definitely didn’t wake up that morning thinking I would play for the ISC side,” he said.
“I was playing with the under21s and had been on the field all game before the coach (Dave Elliott) pulled me off with five minutes to go. I just thought I was having a breather.
“But apparently Aaron Payne had seen me playing for the under-21s and wanted me to come up. They announced it after the game over the microphone and told me to keep warm.
Hearing the news in the moment, I was definitely surprised.”
While he didn’t get a lot of touches for the Queensland Cup side, Wavik did set up a half break late in the game in what was a glimpse of his future talent.
The young fullback is contracted to the Cowboys and was part of their Young Guns program under coach Ben Jefferies over the off-season.
The program, which involved 5am training sessions at
Cowboys HQ, was the perfect learning curve, according to the young player.
“It was good to get that taste of being in a professional athlete environment,” he said.
“The Cowboys would train after us in the mornings, so it was good to see those faces each day as well.
“It was a pretty tough program. (Jefferies) knows what he was doing but it wasn’t too hectic.”
Blackhawks under-21s coach Elliott said the lopsided result against the Pride had come as a shock after he blooded several of the club’s under-18s players.
While there were plenty of nerves before the game, Elliott said the players took their opportunity with both hands.