Latest News

By Greg Prichard

Taree trainer Wayne Wilkes knows a quality mare when he sees one and he believes Austeja, his stylish winner at Taree last Friday, is worthy of a start in the $2 million The Kosciuszko at Royal Randwick on October 15.

Wilkes said his aim now was to get the word out that Austeja is being aimed at the $2m race if one of the eventual slot-holders is interested in doing a deal to have the lightly-raced five-year-old represent them.

Austeja and Andrew Gibbons head out at Taree. Image by Manning River Times

Austeja, ridden by Andrew Gibbons, sat sixth in a nine-horse Benchmark 74 field over 1000m before going to the outside when the pace quickened and zooming home in the straight to win comfortably.

“There are other good races Austeja can be aimed at further down the track,” Wilkes said. “But we’ve got bigger fish we want to fry before then.

“Trying to get a run in The Kosciuszko has been in the back of our minds for a little while, but you’ve got to perform first so she had to step up on Friday and she did that very well.

“She should’ve won at her first run back at Coffs Harbour but she was flattened a couple of times in the straight.

"If she’d won that we’d have been trying to get her name out a little earlier, but now we can.”

Tickets in the slot draw for The Kosciuszko can be purchased for $5 through TAB outlets and online and the lucky slot-holders will be drawn on September 9. The slot-holders then pick horses to run for them and do deals on a share of prizemoney with the owners.

Wilkes said he would run the mare again either just before or soon after the slot draw in a bid to achieve perfect timing with another strong performance.

“We’ll most likely run her in the city,” he said. “It’s no good staying in the country when we’re bidding to get a run in a race like that.

"We’ve got to showcase her. I’m just not sure yet whether it’ll be in a midweek or Saturday class race.”

Wilkes has been very successful winning feature races on the Mid North Coast with mares and he also made a big impact from the start when the Country Championships were introduced, qualifying Russian Roulette for the final in 2017 and Lucciola Belle in 2019. Lucciola Belle, after winning a heat at Port Macquarie, finished second in the $500,000 Final at Randwick.

Wilkes said he likes the way Austeja compares to Lucciola Belle and Shotgun Roulette when the different distances – 1400m for the Country Championships and 1200m for The Kosciuszko – are taken into account.

“They were more 1400 to 1600-metre horses and she’s more a 1200-metre horse, so The Kosciuszko really suits her distance-wise,” he said.

“Andrew Gibbons got off her on Friday and said she was very impressive and good enough to go to town and win races. That’s a strong recommendation from an experienced jockey, so I feel we’re on track.”