IT has been a long journey, but Wagga trainer Peter Churche and good mates Robert Radley and Bill Day will enjoy their first Gold Cup starter in Friday’s $150,000 feature race.
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Churche, a retired shearer, trains just the one horse from his Crampton Street stables but on Friday he will be pitted up against names the likes of Waller, Hawkes and Cummings in the Wagga Gold Cup.
Video Show, a ghostly grey, is like a family pet to Churche and his fellow owners.
Churche raced the mare, Video Lass, who was trained by his father-in-law Con Crowe. Video Lass was then reared at Day’s Springdale property.
For Churche, Radley and Day, to have a starter in the Wagga Gold Cup has been a long time coming.
“It feels good, it feels really good,” Churche said.
“We have been a bit unlucky. His mother we tried to get to the Cup one year but we just couldn’t get there.”
Video Show came along at the perfect time for the trio.
Churche had been five years without a winner and during that time had three horses break down in the space of two and a half years.
“We have had a lot of horses break down,” Churche recalled.
“We had three in two years, then we had a beautiful horse by Armidale break his leg at his first start down here one day.
“We have had a fair bit of bad luck.”
Churche hopes it is time for some good luck, and would love for it to come to Video Show at 4.10pm on Friday.
Video Show has shown above average ability from his first start. He has won five of his 26 starts, and placed on another eight occasions.
All of his wins have come at Wagga, where he loves the 2000 metres. He has raced six times over the track and distance for three wins and a second.
“He’s the best horse I’ve had, definitely,” Churche said.
Churche knows the quality of his opposition in the Cup. But he is also aware of what his five-year-old is made of.
“I think he will run a good race, especially if he can get in the clear,” he said.
“If he can get on the outside of them, he will run a good race. We have got to get to the outside I think.
“If the pace is really on, I tell you what, he will keep things going.
“He looks well, he’s done everything right and his last run was a real good one. That topped him off, that really put the icing on the cake. They will know he’s there.”
As for a one-horse stable to have a runner in the Gold Cup, a modest Churche is starting to realise just how good of an effort it may be.
“That’s what everyone says,” he said.
