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By Mark Brassel

There’ll be silence over the dinner table at Kylie Kennedy’s place in the lead-up to next Sunday’s inaugural $50,000 Showcase Picnic Championships Final (1400m) at Dubbo.

The Narromine-based trainer will have three runners in the race and her partner, last year’s premiership-winning jockey Ricky Blewitt, won’t be aboard any of them!

“I have found riders for The Real McCoy and Zaphod but I’m still trying to book someone for Maximoo,” Kylie said.

“Ricky has accepted the ride on one from the stable of Gilgandra trainer Bruce Parker – I’m not impressed!”

Kennedy rates The Real McCoy as her strongest chance of the trio with the seven-year-old having only made two appearances for the stable, finishing third in a class three (1700m) at Louth before runner-up in the Cobar Picnic Cup (1700m).

“He is building up nicely for the Picnic Championships Final at Dubbo. He just hit the front a bit early at Cobar and Ricky was kicking himself that he should have just waited a little longer and would have won.

“He’s the type of horse that you have to time his run. Victorian rider Reece Goodwin will be coming up to ride him at Dubbo.”

Kennedy’s other pair, Zaphod (Daniel Stanley) and Maximoo, will also be primed for the Picnic Championships Final.

“Zaphod is first-up but that’s how he likes to race – nice and fresh,” Kylie explained. “He’s had a month out in the paddock and hasn’t raced since June but he has the class to win.

“He led all the way to win a TAB race at Parkes in May over 1600m and is a lean horse as he’s always on the move. He’s a real stickybeak and likes to look at everything going on around him.

“Maximoo has never been over the 1400m but he has been settling well in his races lately so we thought we’d give him a crack.

“He was beaten less than a length at Cobar over the 1200m last time out and has only been out of the placings once from his past seven starts.”

The feature race is the $60,000 Dubbo City Toyota Showcase Gold Cup (1600m) preceded by a Cup Calcutta commencing at 6pm next Saturday (16 September) at the Western Star Hotel.

“As it is a Country Showcase meeting we have $340,000 in prizemoney on offer,” said City of Dubbo Turf Club’s GM, Vince Gordon. “We’re expecting a sizeable crowd and the Fashions on the Field will have some amazing prizes.”

View the program for Dubbo's Country Showcase meeting here