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By Greg Prichard

Timing is everything and when Des Kennedy discovered he and his partners had won a slot in The Kosciuszko, the decision on which horse they should try to get to run for them was easy.

The negotiations were a breeze as well, because Kennedy, Max Whitby and Bryan Rutter picked the horse they own – Commando Hunt, trained by Cameron Crockett at Scone.

Des Kennedy pictured at the Oriental Hotel, Mudgee

“Max, Bryan and myself put in $2000 each to buy tickets in the slot draw,” Kennedy said. “We’ve been putting in every year, but we probably haven’t had a horse good enough to run in it in the past.

"We do now though, so we’ve won a slot at the right time, I believe.”

Commando Hunt represents the continuation of a long association between Kennedy and the Crockett family, going back beyond Cameron to his father, the late Max Crockett, as trainer.

Cameron will never forget it was Kennedy who gave him his first horse to train – Are You Sure – back at Mudgee almost a dozen years ago.

“Are You Sure was my first runner and he won at his first start for me,” Crockett said.

“He went on to win quite a few races and kept going for a long time. We had really good success with him.”

Kennedy, who is the Mid-Western Regional Council Mayor and a successful hotelier in the Mudgee district with the Oriental Hotel among those he owns, recalled that Crockett did a great job with Are You Sure, prompting the owner to keep sending horses to him.

“Are You Sure was a twisted-legged little bloke,” Kennedy said. “He was in a paddock and Cameron said, ‘Do you mind if I take him to train?’ and I said, ‘Go for your life’.

“Anyway, he started off by winning at his first two starts with Cameron and later he won a Coonabarabran Cup, a Wellington Cup, won at Canterbury over 1900 metres, so he turned out to be a good little horse and Cameron obviously knew what he was doing as a trainer.”

Commando Hunt (Kerrin McEvoy) returns after competing at Royal Randwick. Image by Bradley Photographers

Loyal owners are obviously invaluable to trainers. As a trainer you’ve got to get results to justify the support of the owners, but if both sides are happy – and the owner-trainer partnership of Kennedy and Crockett has consistently had winners - it has the potential to lead to something special.

Kennedy hopes that something special is about to come with Commando Hunt in the $2 million race over 1200m at Randwick on October 15.

It’s clear that Commando Hunt is good enough to be a serious contender. He jumped out of the ground to finish second to Another One in the Country Championships Final at Randwick in the autumn and has come back nicely this campaign.

“I went to Dubbo the other week to watch him in his first run back and he’s a completely different-looking horse now,” Kennedy said.

“He was a bit slab-sided and long and lean before, but he’s filled out a fair bit so this should be his best prep so far.

“It was just a pipe-opener for him at Dubbo and he ran a good third. He runs his best races when he’s third and fourth-up and he’ll be third-up in The Kosciuszko, so we’re looking forward to that.”

Crockett’s not sure if Commando Hunt is the best horse he’s had with Kennedy in terms of pure talent, but he reckons he’s the best racehorse.

“He’s the most honest, the one that’s come up and handled the pressure best among all of them,” Crockett said. “So he might turn out to be the most lucrative of them all.”