The Brett and Georgie Cavanough training partnership came away with the perfect result in the Evergreen Turf H&NWRA Country Championships Qualifier at Muswellbrook on Sunday when two of their runners Chidiac and Fingers Hunter filled the first two places to earn their respective spots in the starting lineup for the lucrative $1 million Country Championship final at Randwick on April 4.
The Cavanough team had loaded up at Muswellbrook, sending six runners out over the 1280m shootout with Chidiac, who was the best supported of the group, starting as the second favourite at $3.20 behind the outright main fancy Clear Thinking ($1.85).
Both of these runners came into this qualifier racing first-up … Chidiac after a four month layoff while Clear Thinking had been away from race action for a week less than that … but the betting indicated that one of them would take the honours with only one other runner being quoted at odds of less than $20 … that runner being Fingers Hunter ($10).
Mitchell Bell rode an inch prefect race on the winner, producing the daughter of Better Than Ready down the centre of the track with some gusto to take the measure of the brave bolter Miss Rebel ($61), who had tried to make every post a winning one, with 200m left to run.
From there, Chidiac kept putting in all the way to the line … and she had to in order to prevail as her stable companion Fingers Hunter, with Luke Rolls on board, rattled home with meaning to within 0.28 lengths of Chidiac at the line.
Fingers Hunter would have reversed the result in a matter of strides, while Miss Rebel was rewarded for her stout effort with a third place finish.
The favourite Clear Thinking was pushed into a prominent position early from a wide draw by Craig Williams … was right in contention turning for home and in the first half of the home straight … but she weakened out of it over the closing stages to finish unplaced.
