NEWCASTLE’S $1m The Hunter is again on the radar for brilliant The Kosciuszko
winner Far Too Easy.
A freakish race eve mishap forced the talented sprinter’s withdrawal from Newcastle Jockey Club’s flagship event last year – recently granted Group 2 status - and his trainer says there is a real possibility he will be back for this year’s renewal on November 16.
“It’s a month to The Hunter (1300m), and I feel it’s a race which would suit him, depending of course how he is handicapped,” McColm said on Sunday morning in the afterglow of Far Too Easy’s $2m The Kosciuszko (1200m) triumph at Royal Randwick the previous day.
“Far Too Easy is 100 per cent. There was enough give in the Randwick track for him.
He jars up when he races on Good 3 or 4s."
“We have to sit down and work out a program, but The Hunter is definitely on our radar. Of course it would be nice to get Craig Williams back from Melbourne to ride him, but if not there are plenty of good Sydney jockeys.”
Jason Collett was booked for Far Too Easy in last year’s The Hunter, but unfortunately the gelding bumped his head while being exercised on a walker at Broadmeadow on the afternoon before the race.
Whilst the wound above his eye was superficial, nonetheless it required stitching and as such he had to be medicated to enable that to be done.
“It was one of those freakish accidents. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” McColm said.
“You could put him on the walker 5000 other times and nothing would happen.”
McColm, who paid $45,000 for the now All Too Hard six-year-old Far Too Easy as a 2020 Gold Coast Magic Millions yearling (he has now earned just over $2.3m), races the gelding with his wife Judy and close friends Don and Mary Wardlaw.
He was understandably emotional after The Kosciuszko, as Far Too Easy was close to death earlier this year from an acute colitis attack.
“Far Too Easy is a remarkable horse,” McColm said. “I thought we were going to lose him, and certainly didn’t expect we would be back for a third crack at The Kosciuszko.”
The Murwillumbah Marvel exacted revenge on runner-up Front Page, having finished second and third to him in the previous two years at Randwick.
Last year’s The Hunter winner Coal Crusher is expected back to defend his “title” on November 16.
Coal Crusher at $61 valiantly chased home all the way winner Overpass in the $2m Group 3 Sydney Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on Saturday, at his third start this preparation.
He was fourth up when, with 56.5kg, he defeated King Of Sparta and Rocketing By in the 2023 edition of The Hunter.
Story John Curtis, 21 October 2024.
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