After finishing second to The Bus in last year's running of The Pub Group Gold Nugget, Royal Gamble made the return trip to contest the 2020 running and picked up the gold.
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The $10,000 Pub Group Gold Nugget was the feature race on the opening night of the Tamworth HRC January racing carnival on Wednesday night.
Trained by Mark Callaghan at Morisset the Bettors Delight-five-year-old gelding was driven by Callaghan's 18-year-old son Jack.
"Very happy with the win and happy with the drive - it was a good drive," Mark Callaghan said after the win.
"He (Royal Gamble) was second to The Bus in the race last year, he didn't have a lot of luck in that race."
After running second last year Jack Callaghan was happy to make restitution with Royal Gamble this year.
"It feels really good - mission accomplished for sure," Jack said.
"They (field) were rolling along at a fair enough tempo - I didn't have a lot of luck as Bassey (Sam Ison) was sitting there three wide outside of me."
The $2.00 race favourite, Royal Gamble commenced from the nine barrier in the 1980 metre feature but found it hard to obtain a good racing position in the race.
"He raced really well last year in the race and was unlucky and this year he didn't have much luck again but he has developed up a bit more and has become more of a racehorse - he raced well," Jack said.
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Callaghan talked of his efforts during the race to place Royal Gamble into a perfect racing position after landing four back on the outside running line before being shuffled back to last. North Maclean pacer Ifoundthebeach -trained and driven by Graham Dwyer - took the lead from the one barrier.
"There were a few dropping out at the bell and I saw the inside line flowing thru a bit better so I switched back to it," he said.
"I then got an opportunity swinging into the back straight again in the running line and then pushed the horse three wide at the 450 mark."
"He was three wide around the last turn and raced down to the line real good."
"He was good out of the barrier - he is not used to being off the second line as he doesn't do that very often anymore racing at Menangle and Newcastle."
With a $2,000 Gold Nugget as the trophy Jack Callaghan was deciding who would end up with the gold.
"It is pretty good - I will take it home to either Mum (Simone) or the owners," he said.
"Mum has already got one from Culinary Delight."
The mare won the 2017 running.
Royal Gamble is raced by Matt Chidgey and Trent Salkeld in their well-known red and black quarters, red sleeves with black hoops racing silks.
"The owners are both really big supporters of our stables; they have got plenty of horses with us," Callaghan said.
Royal Gamble went on for a 1.9 metre win over Ifoundthebeach with Right On With It (Dean Chapple) a further 5.7m away third with quarters contested in 29.4 seconds for the first quarter; 29.1 seconds the second quarter; 29.4 seconds the third quarter and the final quarter in 31.9 seconds with an overall mile rate of 1.57.7
For Jack a win in a $25,000 race at Menangle was a career highlight.
"But it is always good to win a feature race to start the carnival off," he added.