Slim Dusty’s pub had no beer and on Saturday Mount Isa’s Buchanan Park will be a race track without horses.
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Due to the predicted heatwave Racing Queensland have cancelled the meeting but in a fortuitous stroke of luck punters will still be able to cheer on local horses.
Racing Queensland considered moving the races back but this was deemed untenable with the welfare of horses traveling to and competing at the meeting coupled with potential jockey welfare leading to the cancellation.
A ‘Phantom’ race meeting will be held and punters will be able to cheer on local horses Expat Envy and Loud Enough as they chase glory in the $75,000 Country Cup at Doomben.
Trainer Steven Royes engaged Jason Babarovich to ride Loud Enough and the former Central Queensland jockey is quietly confident.
Baborvich said prior to his departure, the barrier draw helped us because the mile start at Doomben is tucked away and doesn’t straighten until around 1,350m.
So if you start out wide you stay out wide. I feel for Jay Morris because Expat Envy has drawn out in the boondocks (barrier 21).”
While disappointed in the draw Morris will have the advantage of champion Brisbane jockey Jim Byrne who knows Doomben as intimately as Wally Lewis knew Lang Park.
Mount Isa jockey Dan Ballard will also make the trek to ride the top weight Fab’s Cowboy for Queensland Country’s leading trainer Bevan Johnson.
It is a gun combination as the last time Ballard was in Brisbane it was for the Queensland Thoroughbreds Award’s Night where he collected the Queensland Jockey of the Year Award.
Johnson has four runners and had good and bad news with the barrier draw; unfortunately for Ballard, Fab’s Cowboy is out in 18, although he will come in several spots if the emergencies do not get a start.
The seven year-old Bay gelding has been in sensational form this year with eight wins from 15 starts.
There is also an eerie similarity as one of Johnson’s other runners Blue Jest was in the same predicament prior to winning this year’s Birdsville Cup.
“They told me you couldn’t win with top weight, and then we drew the worst barrier,” Johnson recalled.
Expat Envy qualified by winning Mount Isa’s Spring Cup in which Loud Enough finished fourth but a win in the Cloncurry Cup a couple of weeks later earned him his spot.
The Country Cups Challenge (1,600m) is Race 3 at Doomben and scheduled for a 2:12pm start on Saturday.
The last race meet of the season will have an additional two races scheduled at Buchanan Park on December 8.