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By Ray Hickson

There’s a confident spark about jockey Brooke Stower when she talks about her Coonabarabran Cup ride Point Counterpoint that suggests she expects the in-form gelding to make it three straight at Coonamble on Sunday.

Jockey Brooke Stower and Point Counterpoint (Pic: Bradley Photos)

The $75,000 Coonabarabran Bowling Club Cup (1600m), transferred to Coonamble, could be an important race for the Stirling Osland trained five-year-old who has a spot waiting for him in the $500,000 Little Dance at Royal Randwick on November 1.

Stower rode Point Counterpoint into second place in the Armidale Cup back in December last year, making him eligible for the $2m Big Dance but as a runner-up he was down the ballot order for the main event, and again in his first-up Moree Cup win at Tamworth.

She wasn’t on board in his last start Canterbury win, with Osland using apprentice Zac Lloyd's claim, but it confirmed to the in-form 28-year-old that he’s come back a better horse from his extended break.

“Stirling was extremely confident going into the Moree Cup about how well he’d come back,’’ Stower said.

“He was just a class above them. To do what he did first-up was enormous and he went on and he won again.

“It was a good win at Canterbury wasn’t it. It’s always a step to go from country back to the metros and he did a good job.

“He’s a really nice horse going forward and at least you know he handles all conditions.”

It’s been a month since Point Counterpoint’s Canterbury win and Stower said that will likely work in his favour with another target coming up on Tuesday week.

He’s drawn ideally in the middle of a 12 horse field and she’s confident the horse, $3.60 favourite with TAB on Saturday, will produce his best again.

“He’s a horse that tries so hard I reckon he puts it all into his races and leaves nothing left,’’ Stower said.

“With the space between runs, Stirling knows the horse very well and spaces his runs and places him right, I think that’s the key to him.”

Stower is in the top five on the NSW Jockeys Premiership coming to the end of the first quarter of the season and it’s a huge achievement considering she still considers herself somewhat on the comeback trail.

A compressed spine from a fractured L3 injury she sustained when a horse flipped over in the mounting yard at Grafton in August 2020 had her career in the balance for some time.

Since a low key return at a Gilgandra non-TAB meeting just over a year later she’s gone from strength to strength with 82 winners last season and already more than a quarter of that in 2022/23 – and she counts her blessings every day.

“I’ve been very lucky and it’s good to be here and be able to do what I’m doing,’’ she said.

“And to be at the top at the moment. After 12 months off I thought it would take a lot longer than it did and I’m lucky I have a good group of people supporting me.

“The Clements took a truck load of horses to Gilgandra for me to get back, the main goal was for me to have a great day back and I did, and it gave me the confidence and it’s gone from there.”

Another of Stower’s long time supporters has been Jeremy Sylvester and she rides Metal Bar for him in the Barron’s Tyre And Mechanical Handicap (1400m) on the back of a long overdue win.

Point Counterpoint wins at Canterbury on September 21

At start 18 the gelding finally posted a maiden victory when he swept home to score at Dubbo on October 12 and Stower hopes with the confidence up he can reproduce it.

“He’s got to get back and run on and we learned that this time around,’’ she said.

“But he didn’t travel when he was inside horses and as soon as I got him out that was the better going.

“He was a disappointing horse because he’s threatened to do that for a while. So it was good to get the job done on him.”

All the fields, form and replays for Sunday's Coonamble meeting