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By Greg Prichard

Matt Cowling, who won two slots in the sweepstakes draw for last year’s The Kosciuszko and had eventual second placegetter Opal Ridge run for him, is buying plenty of tickets in a bid to get lucky again this year.

Mogo Magic, which he part-owns, was Cowling’s other runner last year and in an ideal world he would win a slot and pick that horse to run for him again but the five-year-old gelding trained by Scott Collings at Goulburn is now out of the running with a leg injury.

Matt Cowling won two Kosciuszko slots in 2023 and is trying his luck again this year.

Collings said Mogo Magic had “strained a ligament between his pastern and his foot”, adding: “Nothing too serious, but serious enough that he’s got to go to the paddock for a spell. He’ll be back, but right now he needs to give it a rest and recover.”

So if Cowling does win a slot again he’d love to get Front Page, the $5 race favourite with TAB, to run for him.

“I’m actually friends with Matty Dale (Front Page’s trainer), so Front Page would be the logical choice if I won a slot and moved quickly enough to get him,” Cowling said.

“I’m president of the Goulburn Junior Stockmen rugby league club and Matty’s kids play footy there.

“We’ve become mates through football and racing. He knows I own a few horses with a few different trainers and that I won a couple of slots in The Kosciuszko last year.

“It’s disappointing Mogo Magic’s out. Scottie was very positive about his progress before he got hurt. But The Kosciuszko is still a great concept and I’d love to be involved again. It won’t stop me from buying tickets, it’ll just be a different mentality.

“You’ve got to think positive and hopefully I can still draw a slot and get Front Page and it can win again. You couldn’t go past Front Page after last year and the year before. You’d have to at least try to get him.

“I don’t have any horses with Matty, but it’s a fair chance I’ll end up having one with him. Maybe I’ll have to tell him if I get Front Page and he wins I’ll buy a horse for him to train!”

Cowling, who is the director at successful local company Goulburn Roofing, said he splurged on tickets last year after Mogo Magic won several races in the lead-up to them going on sale.

“There was the prizemoney and I was backing him as well, so I was just reinvesting that,” he said.

“I spent $15000 on tickets for myself last year and we also spent $1000 each in a syndicate among the owners of Mogo Magic.

“We missed out with the syndicate, but I got lucky with the tickets I bought personally.

“I’ve spent a couple of thousand on tickets this year and I’ll probably spend more, so we’ll see what happens.

“It was a great result last year. Mogo Magic only ran 10th, but I still got $8800 in prizemoney for that on top of $132,000 for Opal Ridge running second. You’ve got to be happy with that.”

Buy your $5 tickets in The Kosciuszko here