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By John Curtis

The richest race Darryll Kell sought in his many years as a harness racing trainer was the $100,000 Sires Stakes at the old Harold Park paceway in 2002.

Now as a Thoroughbred trainer he can top that with a live chance in Saturday’s $150,000 Polytrack Provincial-Midway Championships (1400m) at his home track, Hawkesbury.

And though he isn’t getting ahead of himself, there’s a much richer purse around the corner if hat-trick seeker Mahogany Girl ($8.50 on TAB), a mare he has successfully brought back from racing’s wilderness, can finish first or second.

Mahogany Girl (Chad Lever) streaks away at Hawkesbury. Image by Bradley Photographers

That would earn the six-year-old mare a spot in the $1m PMC Final (1400m) at Royal Randwick on April 12; Day 2 of The Star Championships.

Kell has done a superb job, winning three races with Mahogany Girl, who had more than two and a half years off after a debut third at Wagga in January 2022 – and gave birth to a colt foal by Peltzer during her long absence from the racetrack.

And it was her latest dominant all-the-way victory in a Benchmark 64 Handicap (1300m) victory against her own sex at Hawkesbury on February 20 which prompted her trainer to have a crack at the annual Provincial-Midway series.

Mahogany Girl humped 60kg then and drops to 54kg tomorrow, although Kell expects her regular rider Chad Lever to perhaps declare 0.5kg over.

“I have told Chad not to make himself sick by trying to make the correct weight,” Kell said. “Chad has won all three races on the mare, and knows her backwards.

“I’d much prefer him to stay on Mahogany Girl if he can be only half a kilo over rather than put another jockey on who doesn’t know her.”

Kell recalled getting then three-year-old Mal McGregor to the $100,000 Sires Stakes against his own age and sex at Harold Park on June 14, 2022, when fifth to Pick Handles.

“That’s the richest race I have been involved in,” he said. “Obviously it’s a rise in class for Mahogany Girl going to the Provincial-Midway Championships, but she keeps on improving.

“I’m encouraged by the fact that she has bounced off her last win very well. That was Mahogany Girl’s first start since she also won at Hawkesbury in mid-December, and her two latest gallops were very sharp.

“All her three wins have been at her home track, and that will stand her in good stead. If she is able to lead as she did last time or sit outside the leader, I’m sure she will give a great sight.”

Kell said his slight concern was that the Hawkesbury track becomes too rain-affected: “Her three wins have been on good ground, and that seems to be her preferred surface.”

Mahogany Girl is current;ly fifth favourite on TAB with Kembla Grange trainer Kerry Parker’s Well Timed (Keagan Latham) the $3 favourite. Parker has given the dual city winner three trials to prepare him for a first-up tilt to get into the April 12 Final.

Leading Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup almost certainly will rely on Colours Of Autumn (Zac Wadick-$19) in the PMC Qualifier, with stablemate Hasty Honey ($11) most likely heading instead to the Group 3-Aspiration Quality (1600m) at Royal Randwick tomorrow against her own sex, with Jay Ford to ride.

“By running Colours Of Autumn at home, we have a fall back option of going to the Wild Card (1350m) at Wyong on March 29 if she doesn’t qualify tomorrow,” Widdup said.

Widdup also has decided to put blinkers on Sunset Park ($4.20), who chases a hat-trick in the Godolphin Lifetime Care Benchmark 64 Handicap (1800m).

“I feel she has been needing them, and the time is right,” he said. Stable apprentice Zac Wadick’s 1.5kg claim lessens the beautifully-bred mare’s weight to 58kg.

The rail is in the TRUE position tomorrow and a Soft 5 rating was posted at 8am this morning, with a penetrometer reading of 5.22. Hawkesbury had received 1.5mm of rain in the previous 24 hours, and 13mm overall in the past seven days.

Racing begins at 1.15pm, and the PMC Qualifier closes the eight-race program at 5.35pm.

View the final fields with full form & race replays for Hawkesbury here