By John Schell
Albury Mile winner County Kilkenny will tackle another country feature on Sunday when the five-year-old contests the XXXX Gold Gundagai Cup as he heads towards trainer Tim Donnelly’s home-town Wagga Cup next month.
The Wagga-based Donnelly has had a long-range plan to win the Wagga Cup with County Kilkenny dating back to last October when the gelding finished second in the Cootamundra Cup.
Molly Bourke will ride County Kilkenny in the Gundagai Cup.Credit: Getty Images
The gelding has had three runs back from a spell, with a second-up eighth when beaten just over three lengths in the SDRA Country Championships at Wagga being followed by the last start Albury Mile victory.
“He’s come back in good order,” said Donnelly.
“His first couple of runs back over the 1200m and 1400m were solid and he appreciated the step up to the mile [1600m] to score a strong finishing win at Albury at his latest start.”
Mathew Cahill was aboard County Kilkenny at Albury, but Molly Bourke takes over the ride again in the $36,000 Gundagai Cup.
“Molly has a good record on him with a couple of city placings and a city win on him and she was also on him in the Cootamundra Cup,” Donnelly said.
“She knows him well and he should get every chance from the good gate [barrier 3].”
County Kilkenny was the early favourite with TAB Fixed Odds for the Gundagai Cup, ahead of the Ben Brisbourne-trained Star Buyer, which is backing up from a last-start second at Wagga last weekend. The Ron Stubbs-trained Baledon, which finished sixth behind County Kilkenny in the Albury Mile, was also well regarded in the market.
Donnelly went close to winning the Wagga Cup in 2013 when Devised was beaten a nose by Scream Machine and he thinks County Kilkenny can make a major impact if he can get to the race.
“He is a half-brother to Waterford and Wicklow, and they improved with maturity and this bloke is doing the same,” said Donnelly. “Wicklow won the Wagga Cup as a five-year-old so it would be nice if County Kilkenny could head down the same path.”
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