3 minute read

Canberra trainers will launch a strong bid to uphold their impressive record in the $55,000 Snake Gully Cup at Gundagai on Friday.

Canberra stables have won the Snake Gully Cup seven times since 1996 with Matt Dale leading the way with three wins in the last eight years with Gunfire Messiah, Happy Finish and Lebrechaun.

Keith Dryden has two Snake Gully Cup wins to his credit with dual winner Green Waters in 1996 and 1999 while Barbara Joseph (Medicine) and Gratz Vella (Cherine) have also picked up wins.

Joseph and Dryden are both represented in this year’s edition and will be joined by two Nick Olive-trained runners to give Canberra stables a strong hand in a deep field that has drawn horses from Sydney and Victoria.

Joseph is returning with Back To Zero in a bid to go one better than last year when the gelding finished second to Via Facile in the Snake Gully Cup.

Via Facile, trained at Goulburn by Graham Spackman, is also back in an attempt to join Green Waters as the second dual winner of the Snake Gully Cup and the first to win the race in successive years.

Keith Dryden is represented by Room To Boom but Olive may hold the upper hand for the Canberra stables with his talented pair Nat King Cru and Without A Shadow.

Sydney stables have won two of the last four Snake Gully Cups. Warwick Farm trainer Steve Englebrecht hopes to extend that record with his first Snake Gully Cup runner Reply Churlish.

Full Hand, trained at Wodonga by Brian Cox, heads the field with the topweight of 59kg over the stablemates Price Of Glory and Prince Pedro from the Brett Cavanough yard at Albury.

Landlocked, trained at Queanbeyan by Joe Cleary, Moruya-trained Baldovino and Ramsay’s Curse from the Robert Price stable at Nowra, add more depth to the field.