IT was a light bulb “moment”!
Mitch Beer was standing at the back of the betting ring at Kembla Grange 12 months ago, having just moved there from Albury in a determined bid to establish himself as a provincial trainer.
“Cox Plate day last year and I still had a base at Albury and had a runner there I thought could win and was watching the race on Sky,” he recalled on Sunday.
“The horse sat four and five wide in the run and got beat, and I thought ‘what am I doing here’?
“At the time I still had 30 horses at Albury, and only 12 at Kembla Grange.
“Thankfully, that all changed not too long afterwards when This Is The Moment was our first winner at Kembla (on November 19), and I knew everything would be okay.
“The dynamics have certainly changed since.
“We no longer have an Albury stable, but have 44 horses at Kembla Grange and another eight permanently at the beach.”
Hot on the heels of his first home track double on October 12 with Brazil and Artful Persuasion, Beer struck again on Saturday by repeating the feat – this time with one of those horses (Artful Persuasion) and his very first Kembla winner This Is The Moment.
The latter took the Conditional Benchmark 60 Handicap (1600m) at $7.50, and Artful Persuasion ($2.90 favorite) made it two in a row in the Provincial Benchmark 64 Handicap (1400m).
Both were ridden by Blake Spriggs, who also was aboard the October 12 double, and has formed a very successful association with the Kembla Grange trainer.
Beer’s second double this month also followed being named last week as one of three new ambassadors for Illawarra Turf Club’s feature The Gong meeting on November 23.
“Our horses are racing really well at Kembla Grange, and it’s hard to find a reason not to race them here anyway,” Beer said.
“It’s a great track and the provincial prizemoney is excellent.
“Things are going well.”
Beer’s double brought up 250 winners on his own (a dozen already this season), but he also prepared another 30 at the beginning of his career when he trained in partnership with Max Hinton at Mornington.
This Is The Moment, a five-year-old by Toronado, was a $60,000 Inglis Premier yearling sale purchase in Melbourne in 2021.
“He was a maiden when I brought him to Kembla Grange and he has now won four races in the last year, three of them from his last four starts,” Beer said.
Artful Persuasion, a Flying Artie four-year-old, was a $40,000 buy as a 2022 Inglis Classic yearling in Sydney, and his trainer considers the best is yet to come from the gelding.
“He keeps improving, and I feel he will be a Provincial-Midway Championships horse in autumn,” Beer said.
“Artful Persuasion has raced only eight times, and I’ll run him in a Midway Handicap at The Gong meeting next month, and then give him a freshen up.”
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Leading Newcastle trainer Kris Lees was the other provincial winner on the Kembla program.
Lees’ talented mare Kind Words ($1.55 favorite), given a great ride by Andrew Gibbons, easily disposed of her rivals in the Class 1/Maiden Plate (2000m) to clinch only her second victory.
However, she has taken on stakes grade in more than half of her 15 starts, including an excellent fourth in the Group 1 Queensland Oaks (2200m) at Eagle Farm in June.
Lees also was successful with $21 chance Naughty Nurse in the Maiden Plate (1509m) at Port Macquarie on Sunday, and fellow Newcastle trainer David Atkins also scored with Lounerse ($6) in the Class 3 Handicap (1206m).
Christian Reith rode Naughty Nurse, and Lees’ apprentice Ben Osmond partnered Lounerse.
Story John Curtis, October 27, 2024 - Pics Bradley Photos
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