Norm Loy may bypass the Country Championships with Butler Butler in favour of a tilt at the $180,000 Albury Gold Cup (2000m).
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Butler Butler ($6.50) was an impressive winner of the SDRA Championship Preview Class Four Handicap (1400m) at Albury on Friday.
The $150,000 SDRA qualifier for the Country Championships (1400m) will be held at Wagga on March 4.
Loy revealed he may bypass the Championships heat for a crack at the Albury Gold Cup on March 23.
“I don’t think that’s in our program,” Loy said.
“We got away with it today, but we’re really looking at the Albury Gold Cup and with that in mind, we really need to run over the 1800 in the Tom Patton Cup (at Wagga).
“I’ll talk to the owners. It’s very tempting with the prizemoney on offer (in the Championships) but you would have to compromise your plans to do it.”
Butler Butler’s win was the first leg of a winning double for apprentice jockey Josh Richards, who was later successful on Illoura.
“Josh rode it exactly to instructions, everything I asked of him,” Loy said.
“He’s going to be a good little rider.”
Loy was impressed by the performance of Butler Butler after admitting he made a mistake taking him to Rosehill second up for a crack at a Highway Handicap.
“His second up form is very dismal,” he said.
“It was my mistake taking him to Sydney second up, I shouldn’t have done it.
“But we got over that, freshened him up and I said to the owner, I’m going to run him over the 1400 and win.”
Albury’s Norm Stubbs jagged victory with Yousay Bolt in race two, while Wodonga’s Peter Maher and Wangaratta trainers Chris Davis and Scott McInosh were also among the winners.
