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By Ray Hickson

Albury trainer Donna Scott is no stranger when it comes to qualifying a horse for the Newhaven Park Country Championships Final and she says any of her three runners have the credentials to represent the Southern Districts on April 1.

Trainer Donna Scott

But it should be no surprise that a lot of the talk among her trio heading into the $150,000 Newhaven Park SDRA Country Championships (1400m) at Albury on Saturday surrounds the runaway last start win by Our Last Cash.

The five-year-old has won four of his nine starts but it was the almost seven length all the way victory in the Preview at Wagga on February 9 that gave Scott a minor shock.

“He’s really put the cat among the pigeons with that dominating win the other day,’’ Scott said.

“After they’d gone 100m I said to my foreman the saddle must have slipped. He is quirky, sometimes he can be slow away and other times he can jump so you’ve just got to play him by ear.

“I don’t think that is his pattern of racing. I wouldn’t expect him to be in that position come Saturday.”

Our Last Cash was $4.40 second favourite with TAB on Friday after drawing gate seven and $21 in the Final.

Scott said Our Last Cash has long shown promise and was coming along nicely heading towards the Championships with a third-up win at Corowa before his Wagga procession which was off a six week break.

“My daughter rides a lot of work and she put the markings on him early and said there’s something about him to like but he wasn’t mentally ready,’’ she said.

“He has a lot of ability but to put them away like that the other day was quite surprising.”

Scott has qualified a horse for the Country Championships Final in four of the past five years with the miss coming in 2022 when Gusonic was the best of her runners finishing third.

He’s back again this year along with the lightly raced Clever Art while Scott also trains first emergency Snap Book.

Gusonic has won two races since his placing in last year’s event and he resumed with a closing third behind Munitions in a Benchmark 78 at Randwick where he was 0.33 lengths from being ineligible for the Championships.

“We thought we’d pick out a race in town and if he happens to win it he wouldn’t be eligible,’’ Scott said.

“I said to the owners we’ll take a win in town if we can get it.

“I thought it would be too short for him and he ran third. Tim Clark said he thought he’s come back better this prep.”

Our Last Cash wins at Wagga on February 9

Clever Art has only had the five starts for three wins and Scott said after her pleasing third behind Super Extreme in a TAB Highway (1200m) three weeks ago it’s worth a shot as she feels the mare would have won more than five races by 2024.

“She’s a bit immature but I can’t imagine she will be able to run in it next year. I think she has enough ability to win a midweek in town,’’ she said.

“If any one of these horses get in, from what I’ve taken in previous years and been competitive, I’m sure they would be right there.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Country Championships meeting at Albury