Cody Morgan has been trying to win the Newhaven Park Country Championships Final for six years but in a year with no standouts he feels he might finally have the right horse in impressive Wild Card winner Talbragar.
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In one of the training performances of the season in country racing, the Tamworth trainer took Talbragar from a 1000m Class 3 win on his home track two weeks ago to victory in the Northern Wild Card over 1400m at Scone on Monday.
The five-year-old enhanced his record to five wins from six starts and firmed into $7 with TAB to win the $500,000 final at Royal Randwick on April 1.
"I haven't got anything that goes like him,'' Morgan said.
"I'm sure I'll go many years and not have a horse go 1000m to 1400m in a decent country race like that, they just don't do it.
"I thought to myself (on Sunday) I've been lucky enough to qualify a few times but I've never had the standout horse.
"I've never had a Noble Boy or Victorem, they've just been better than them, this guy is as close as I've had.
"They are that next step up. I don't know if our horse is that but I think he is potentially that. He's won five from six and the only race he was beaten in is a Kosciuszko."
Morgan had his first Country Championships final runner in 2017 when he won the Wild Card with Pelerin and he's won the Hunter & North West Championships in 2019 (Unbiased), 2020 (Ligulate) and 2022 (Anethole).
Talbragar didn't make the final field in the Tamworth race on February 26 but secured his place in the Wild Card with his first-up win a week later - the Scone win gave Morgan the last spot in the 2023 final.
"It'll come down to draws and stuff but he's offset a tricky gate there,'' he said.
"I just thought he could do it. Whether it takes too much out of him, I hope it doesn't, and if Sydney was an extra week it'd be ideal but it's not so we will roll with it."
He might be a gelding but Talbragar can be described as one of racing's bluebloods being by super sire Snitzel out of 2013 Golden Slipper winner Overreach and Morgan said he hasn't been an easy horse to deal with.
Mark Newnham had him as a younger horse but he found his way to Dubbo where he had one start for Kody Nestor in October 2021.
When Nestor gave up training he headed to Tamworth and won his first two starts for Morgan before earning a spot in The Kosciuszko last year, his only unplaced run to date.
Morgan never doubted Talbragar would run out a strong 1400m but conceded coming off a 1000m first-up wasn't the ideal preparation and he is rapt that his trackwork rider Brody Cummins, who broke his back last year, will be able to strap him in the final at Randwick.
"He does some work this horse. Probably 95 per cent of my other horses wouldn't have won because I'm pretty soft on him but this bloke works twice a day,'' he said.
"If you give him any time off he'll drill you. You don't get a horse that well bred unless he's drilled absolutely everyone along the way. He doesn't end up at Tamworth."
Jockey Aaron Bullock, who won the Hunter & North West Championships on Akasawa and will ride that horse in the final, said he was always confident once Talbragar landed in front early and settled so well when Russley Crown crossed to take up the running.
He moved alongside the leader with about 120m to run and surged away to score by a length over Russley Crown. The Dramatist ran on from from near last on the turn to finish third.
"I drew wide and I knew we'd land in front of nearly three quarters of them. It was matter of getting across without firing him up,'' Bullock said.
"He's sharp, he's got a good turn of foot and he puts himself forward. The first 150m he did overdo it a little bit. I was confident once he relaxed going to the first corner."
Morgan had the most runners in the race with four. Casino Lord was fifth, Seguso sixth and Acrophobic 10th. Mark Mason's Strelitzia meanwhile finished 15th.
