Wet My Whistle sees off late challenge to win Golden Guitar Final

Wet My Whistle from the Hunter Valley stables of Clayton Harmey, won the feature race on a night of mixed weather conditions.

"It was sensational," Harmey said after the win of the Bettors Delight-Dreaming Spires gelding.

"I have been coming to Tamworth for the Golden Guitar for years now and have had quite a few placings but to win the first Golden Guitar Final run at Group 2 level is lovely."

Harmey is currently sitting seventh on the National Top 20 trainers list with 50 country-based wins while Wet My Whistle has had six race starts in Australia after coming from New Zealand and under Harmey's training produced six wins on the trot.

"The race was pretty good to watch. I was concerned when Amanda (Turnbull) got the one by one and with Cameron Davies horse (Battle Chimes). I was confident but still worried at the same time," he said.

"It was the horses second run back from a spell and he is going to get even better off that - I'm pretty proud of the horse."

Wet My Whistle won the first heat of the series before heading into the final under the hands of Sydney reinsman Leigh Sutton who had a good night in taking out both the Golden Guitar Final as well as the Garrard's Horse and Hound Tamworth City Cup when the Jake Mitchell trained Gottashopearly produced back-to-back wins.

"It was my second drive in the race but my first win and its always lovely to win a Group 2 race," Sutton said recounting his Golden Guitar win.

"This horse (Wet My Whistle) is in a different league and is going to be a nice Menangle horse for Clayton."

"I am grateful that I was the one lucky enough to drive him. He is a lovely horse who has won six from six and conquering everything in front of him."

"He didn't beat a bunch of slow one's tonight he had to earn it (win) and he sure did that."

Brilliant out of the gate from the four barrier Sutton had Wet My Whistle sitting up leading the field with $1.95 race favourite Leonidas (Blake Fitzpatrick) racing out in the breeze.

"He felt good half way thru the score up, we were chugging along nicely and once we hit the start, he rolled off the barrier good," Sutton said.

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Battle Chimes (Josh Gallagher) raced on the leaders back while a strong challenge from Obi One and Turnbull was about to evolve as the field rounded the final turn.

"I knew Battle Chimes was a sit and sprint horse and as long as I held the others at bay, which I did, it was always going to be good enough, which he (Wet My Whistle) was.

"We were in the front the whole way and he laboured a little around the final turn, just from a little immaturity as he is still learning but to his credit he fought on," Sutton said.

Turnbull and Obi One, who finished second to Leonidas in the second heat of the series, were throwing out a serious challenge down the home straight to Wet My Whistle.

"I didn't see Amanda until late and I threw everything at my hose but the kitchen sink. There was no tidiness about my driving at the finish, but we got the win," he said.

Wet My Whistle held on for a head win over Obi One with Battle Chimes 2.4 metres away third with a mile rate of 1.57.7 for 1980 metres.

"You are never confident in a close finish and I have a shocking record in photo finishes with Amanda as she always seems to beat me but when we had pulled up and came back, I was quietly confident," Sutton said.

"The horse keeps stepping up every time he is asked - he is amazing."

The meeting overcame some challenges before the first race with a dust storm engulfing Tamworth itself before clearing in time for the first race only to see a down pour of rain wash out the post-race presentation of the Golden Guitar Final.

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