Legend and Lacey Claim NQ Cup

Late bloomer Speed Legend showed his liking for the Cluden Park track with a strong win in the Ladbrokes NQ Cup (1609m), but the Townsville Cup is unlikely to be on his target list.

Speed Legend, ridden superbly by Lacey Morrison, claimed his fourth win from five Townsville starts in Sunday’s feature which offered the winner an automatic start in the $150,000 Cup on August 3.

Winning trainer Roy Chillemi said his preference was to target the Cairns Newmarket instead.

“I’ll have a talk to Lacey but I don’t think we’ll go any further than that with him. Maybe another mile, maybe,” Chillemi said.

“I was thinking more of a race like the Newmarket any of those sort of 1400m races coming up. I don’t think he’s a Cleveland Bay horse.”

Speed Legend made an instant impact when he joined Chillemi’s Tolga stables last year with two wins in NSW.

The Star Witness gelding has won seven of his 10 appearances for Chillemi and is still relatively lightly raced with just 29 career starts.

“He’s the worst horse to work on the track. You can’t work on him there.  

 He just pulls his head off and ties up.

“I don’t know if that was his problem down south but it wouldn’t have helped.

“We had to take him away from the track to muscle him up. It’s the only way we’ve been able to manage him.”

Leading jockey Lacey Morrison has played a key role in Speed Legend’s race day successes, booting him home in five of his northern wins.

Jockey and horse were again on song in the NQ Cup. 

Morrison moved to second behind bold front runner Olympic Korchnoi after momentarily being caught wide and always had the race within grasp.

Although striking the front 250m out, Speed Legend toughed out a 1¼ length win over the brave Olympic Korchnoi who will only get better over more distance.

The pair had the race to themselves with Miss Seattle rolling into third another 3 lengths away.

Charters Towers trainer Bob McGuire scored an inspirational win with his ageless veteran Eroe in the upset of the day in the Ladbrokes 0-60 Band Hcp (1609m) at 30-1.

McGuire said the win was a timely boost for him and his wife Alison.

“Last year was going to be his last season and I put him in the paddock,” McGuire said.

“But Alison has breast cancer and I’ve got prostate cancer so we’re not going too well. We both get operated on in the next three weeks.

“She said you’ve got to get out and do something and he was in the paddock running around like an idiot so I thought I’d get him back in and just play with him and see how he goes.

“But this will definitely be his last preparation. He’s been a good old horse for us.

“He won the Prairie Cup, he’s won two here and a won a race for us in Ewan and a race on the Tablelands.”

McGuire said getting the condition into the old gelding had been hard with the recent closure of the Charters Towers track.

“I lunge him a lot because I can’t get on the track. We were on the track but they closed it again recently – it’ll reopen again soon. Other than that, I drive down here three or four times a week and Pietro (Romeo) works him for me.

“I thought he could win it but I wasn’t overly confident because I didn’t know how fit I had him.

“When Pietro rode him during the week he said if he’s fit enough he’ll give it a shake.”

Trainer Ben Williams is predicting a bright future for the lightly raced Smart Mission after he rolled Better Show and the raging favourite Dance For Me Randy in the Hygain QTIS 2YO Hcp (1200m).

Having just his fourth race start and going into the race as a maiden, Smart Mission surged late under Graham Kliese to claim an impressive win.

“A new client of mine Darren Humphries, who was involved with Red Boom who I had some success with, bought him out of the paddock and had him broken in and educated down south,” Williams said.

“He was a $5000 horse. It’s taken a little while to get him to this stage.

“I gave him a prep and he went shin sore, and I sent him home to the Towers and trotted that out of him on the treadmill which was a learning curve for me.

“This time in he’s just kept learning. I actually thought he might have switched on a bit quicker than he did.

“He’s still green and I think in six months’ time he’ll be a nice horse.”

Pictured: Premier jockey Lacey Morrison guides Speed Legend to victory in the Ladbrokes NQ Cup (1609m).

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