Brad Pengelly gets the chance to win the first feature race of his comeback when he rides Darci Be Good in the Grafton Cup.
Three years after he retired because of constant weight issues, Pengelly returned to race riding in May and has ridden as low as 55kg.
Darci Be Good carries 55.5kg in Thursday’s Listed Grafton Cup (2350m) and trainer Andrew Williamson is delighted to have Pengelly aboard.
“Brad has been riding well and he should suit Darci Be Good. There looked like being a shortage of top riders for the Cup and it is good to get someone of Brad’s experience,” Williamson said.
Darci Be Good has twice been placed in Listed company this campaign and had no luck when seventh behind Addictive Habit in a Gold Coast Quality over 1800m at his last start.
Fellow Queensland trainer Bryan Guy believes Noisy Ocean, who ran third in last year’s Grafton Cup behind Queenstown and Secessio, is spot-on for this year’s race.
“He got home well over 1600 metres under a big weight at Doomben two weeks ago and that topped him off nicely,” Guy said.
Brenton Avdulla rode Noisy Ocean last year but will be aboard the Gerald Ryan-trained Shoreham with Tommy Berry to take over on Guy’s charge.
Kerrin McEvoy sticks with race favourite Kapour who is aiming to give Melbourne trainer Ciaron Maher his second win in three years.
Maher won the race with Mr O’Ceirin in 2013 and the trainer and McEvoy combined for two Group One wins with Srikandi during the Brisbane winter carnival.
Kapour earned his Grafton Cup start with a dominant Rosehill win on June 27, the same day McEvoy rode Maurus to victory for David Vandyke.
McEvoy opted to stick with Kapour and Vandyke has engaged Jason Collett for Maurus and Blake Spriggs for stablemate Archean.
The two-day Grafton carnival begins on Wednesday with the feature the Ramornie Handicap (1200m).
