He was the king of Albury racing for years and on Sunday Brett Cavanough will return with two runners in the lead-up to a major assault on the Albury Gold Cup carnival.
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Cavanough relocated from Albury to Scone last April and always planned to return for the feature race days starting with Brazen in the Albury Mile and Bray in the Benchmark 64 Handicap (1600m) on Sunday.
Cavanough is looking forward to returning to his old stomping ground.
“It’s hard to believe it’s almost 12 months since we left. Things have been going well from the new base at Scone and I plan to have a few more runners here next Friday,” Cavanough said.
“If Brazen runs well he will back-up in the Albury Cup. He has had two nice trials and is ready to go.”
Bray won his first two starts this preparation, but has missed in three subsequent starts at Randwick and Newcastle (two).
Cavanough will reunite with jockey Richard Bensley with Bray – the pair sharing many feature wins at Albury Cup time in recent years.
Some of the contenders for the Albury Mile will also be looking to confirm a spot in the $180,000 Albury Cup on Friday week.
Two of those, Nagging and Pittsburgh, filled the quinella in the recent Corowa Cup last Saturday while Failed Approach is a last start winner at the Sapphire Coast and Bank On Henry has the right credentials to win.
Bank On Henry won at Orange before a strong last start third in Sydney ensuring he will start one of the favourites.
His trainers, Barbara Joseph and Paul Jones, are coming off a huge win in last Sunday’s Canberra Cup with Another Court and could well snare another feature race.
Nagging’s trainer Mark Gee said his mare’s shock win in the Corowa Cup at $100 had put him on notice what she might be able to do again.
“If she finds her old form she is midweek Sydney class. Her back-up record is very good so I’m expecting her to run well again,” Gee said.
“She hadn’t won for 18 months and has gone up 14 benchmark points for the Corowa win, but she has pulled up super and goes well with her runs close together.”
Pittsburgh’s trainer Dan McCarthy is hoping to win to earn a start in the Albury Gold Cup.
“He is backing up three times in three weeks, but the run the other day didn’t hurt him,” McCarthy said.
“It’s not often you get beat by a $100 chance, but to her (Nagging) credit she was too good and we did beat the rest pretty easy so I’m sure he will run well.
“He needs to win to go to the Albury Cup.”
The first of seven races at Albury on Sunday gets underway at 1.20pm.
Nominations for Albury Gold Cup day close at 11am on Monday. It is a Showcase meeting.
