IT’S full steam ahead to Friday’s $150,000 Wagga Gold Cup (2000m) for locally-owned High Opinion after a fighting victory at Murrumbidgee Turf Club last week.
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Wagga trainer Chris Heywood is pushing on to Friday’s feature race full of confidence after the four-year-old stayer returned to top form in the Viewco Glass MTC Country Cup (2000m).
Despite that win, High Opinion remains 24th on the order of entry for the Cup, with the final fields to be released today.
A green light will hopefully see the Craig and Sue Hardy-owned galloper secure a place in the Cup field, not so for leading Southern Districts top apprentice jockey, Nick Heywood, son of Chris, who will miss out on riding in the race.
The promising Wagga apprentice was suspended at Gosford last week.
The Heywood team were hoping for a positive outcome to their appeal of the sentence last week.
Stewards denied the stay of proceedings and scheduled the appeal for Wednesday in Sydney. The appeal will now be withdrawn.
Top country jockey Mathew Cahill will replace Nick on High Opinion for the feature race.
Chris Heywood is devastated to see his son miss out on the ride in the Cup.
“I’m absolutely shattered,” Chris said.
“Nick is surprisingly alright but I think it will hit him more when he gets there.”
Nick Heywood has ridden High Opinion in 14 of his 22 starts and at his last three victories.
Cahill will step in for his first ride on the four-year-old on Friday.
“The owners were keen to get Matty. If Nick couldn’t ride him the day of the championships at Randwick then Mat was going to ride.
“He’s been on standby for a while with him.”
Chris attributed High Opinion’s return to form on Tuesday to the advice of Nick.
“Taking the blinkers off made the difference,” he said.
“We work him with nothing but heading into Corowa a few runs back we thought we had nothing to lose by throwing the blinkers on.
“He ran second in the Albury Cup and we thought we had done the right thing but at his last two starts he hasn’t let down.
“Nick said to take them off and it’s done the trick.”
Another decision that paid off was the one to ride High Opinion closer to the speed. The son of Lord Jim settled outside the lead and fought on tenaciously in the straight.
“I said to Nick that we had nothing to lose,” he said.
“There was no speed in the race.”
Heywood believes the MTC Country Cup win will be enough to secure High Opinion a start this week.
“Because he’s won his benchmark rating should go up to 74, that should get him in,” he said.
“The plan was always to come to this race and get the win. I’m pretty happy with him going into this week.”
