Hawksbury based jockey Grant Buckley’s run of success in Country Cups continued on Monday when he produced the ride of the day to win the TAB Venue Mode Jungle Juice Cup (1350m) on the NJC’s Beaumont track.
Buckley was reunited with Taree mare Charmmebaby and the heavily backed $3.30 favourite produced a last to first performance. The mare was last to leave the barrier then settled amongst the tailenders. In the home straight she was behind a wall of horses with nowhere to go. Buckley in desperation dragged Charmmebaby across heels to the centre of the track. She produced an exceptional turn of foot to gather in the leaders in the shadows of the post.
The winner is trained by legendary North Cost mentor Bob Milligan and she has won six of twenty four starts and $266,000 in prizemoney. Last preparation the five year old finished third behind Art Cadeau in the Country Championships Final at Randwick and was beaten .3 length in the Tamworth Cup. Buckley has recently ridden the winners of the Dubbo and Port Macquarie Cups. It was his second Jungle Juice Cup win having been successful on Pass The Ammo (1998).
Glen Milligan, Forman for his father, told SKY Racing “It was a good run and she goes so good for Grant. It was a 10 out of 10 ride. Coming around the turn I said to my wife we are in trouble here, but when clear she went bang”.
Local trainer Nathan Doyle claimed the Sharp Office Cessnock Cup (2100m) with four year-old mare Unwavering Faith ridden by Ashley Morgan. It was Unwavering Faiths fourth win in ten starts and Doyle who leases the mare said it took many preparations before she went to the races.
“It took a bit of time but luckily we persevered and she is a promising stayer. She is a very relaxed mare and I always thought she would stay” Doyle said.
Welshman Ashley Morgan, one of the most successful jockeys in the country circuit said he was quietly riding Unwavering Faith “too pretty” in the past. “She never travels for me but she let down good today. The mare was always going to stay. A nice win”. Morgan said.
Grant Buckley, Aaron Bullock and Mitchell Bell rode doubles at the meeting. It was the first meeting held on the Beaumont track since February 2020. The track received high praise form jockeys Jeff Penza, Grant Buckley, Andrew Gibbons and Rory Hutchings.