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By Colin Hodges

Trained by the sister of five shearers, part-owned by an orphan who left school at 14 to become a jackaroo and later made his fortune as a nightclub owner and futures trader, and ridden by a young jockey formerly from Queensland, the 4yo mare One Aye on Sunday won the $50,000 Bankstown Sports Club Forbes Cup in an exciting finish.

One Aye and the runner-up Toulon Brook have now achieved eligibility for the $2 million The Big Dance to be held at Royal Randwick on 1 November.

Barbara Joseph, who prepares One Aye, has been a long time successful trainer at Bombala, Canberra and the Sapphire Coast and over recent years has operated as a partnership with her sons Paul and Matt Jones.

One Aye (Blaike McDougall) - stormed home to win yesterday's Bankstown Sports Club Forbes Cup. Image by Bradley Photographers

The above mentioned part-owner is larger than life character Max Whitby who has raced hundreds of horses including several champions such as 2004 Cox Plate winner Savabeel.

Quayde Krogh, who rode with some success on Queensland tracks and then spent time with the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable at Randwick, has seen his career flourish since joining the Joseph & Jones team at Canberra and it was an outstanding ride on One Aye.

Approaching the home turn in the 1600m Cup it was Toulon Brook, Straya Pride and Notabadidea leading the capacity field of 14 with the favourite One Aye starting to make ground from midfield.

Toulon Brook ($11) trained by Matthew Dale at Canberra and ridden by Tony Cavallo broke clear but was overhauled and beaten a neck by One Aye ($5 to $4.20) while the Kurt Goldman, Goulburn trained Intuition (Nick Heywood, $13) finished well for third.

Reward Seeker (Jake Pracey-Holmes) runner-up to From The Bush in the 2021 Cup worked home nicely for fourth.

Despite it being a very cold day with early showers, Forbes attracted a big crowd and the eight races on the Good 4 then Soft 5 well prepared track, were contested by mainly capacity fields.

Feature sprint, the 1200m The Amazing Ben Hall Bullet Benchmark 74 Handicap, received good support from Forbes Shire Council and saw a smart win by the Brad Widdup, Hawkesbury-trained Free State.

Last start Gilgandra winner Moetta (Jake Barrett, $4.20) held a slender lead at the top of the straight and fought hard, however, Free State (Billy Owen, $5.50) burst through the pack to score by a head with Kattegat (Robbie Brewer, $6) carrying the 62kg topweight a close third.

At this time of the year, Dubbo trainer Merv Rumble is often campaigning with a team of horses in Darwin, however, he was at Forbes to win the $40,000 Roylances Tractor Replacements Showcase Country Maiden Plate with Ogrim.

Producing a strong run down the outside Ogrim (Clayton Gallagher, $9.50) won by over a length from Down To Earth (Serg Lisnyy, $19) and Rubi Air (Jake Barrett, $4).

The other legs of a treble for Clayton Gallagher were the Wayne Collison, Narromine-trained Money Not My God ($3.30) and Osman ($4.6 ) trained at Mudgee by Mack Griffith.

Taree trainer Joe Burges had a double with Barry’s Lane (Jake Pracey-Holmes, $5.50) and Mr Eighty Eight (Nick Heywood, $4.40) while Nick Heywood also won on Extravagant Lad ($3.50 fav) for Goulburn trainer Scott Collings.

Next Forbes meeting is Saturday 8th October. The famous Louth races in outback New South Wales on Saturday followed by the Spinalcure Australia meeting at Dubbo on Sunday.