According to trainer John Lundholm, Nampara Bullet is a “lazy sort of fellow”, but you wouldn’t have known it after the seven-year-old gelding’s barnstorming win in the Sky Gold/Geoff England Memorial Wellington Cup (1700m) on Sunday.
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To get the best out of Nampara Bullet, the veteran Coonamble mentor called on Dubbo jockey Jeff Kehoe for the winning ride.
“This horse needs a bit of a stir up and Jeff was able to do that. He couldn’t have ridden him any better,” Lundholm said.
“He likes to get back a bit but as we saw here today he does his best work at the finish.”
In a driving finish Nampara Bullet ($7.00) tipped out the Allan Gibson, Dubbo-trained Catador ($21.00, Justin Stanley) by a head with Straw Vote ($5.00, Lee Menser) three-quarters of a length away third.
The $4.20 favourite Mr Latar (Josh Adams) was unplaced.
Owned by Dr Robert Kirkby and his wife Joy at Narromine, Nampara Bullet has now won 12 races from 39 starts and this preparation has won the Bedgerebong Cup and a Dubbo Benchmark 70 race.
“The Bedgerebong Cup win was terrific but this win today was very, very good,” the trainer added.
Nampara Bullet was formerly trained at Orange by John Langworthy before he was injured in a track accident and was then taken out to the Lundholm stables.
There was no more excited a jockey at Wellington than Jeff Kehoe who returned to a wonderful reception at the saddling enclosure.
“I was happy where I landed in the early stages but down the back a couple of horses took off and put a bit of pace into the race and I decided to go with them,” he said.
“I had to ride him pretty hard and then on the turn I kept getting nice runs and that made a lot of difference in the final bit.
“He dug deep at the same time and really hit the line nice.”
While it was Kehoe’s first ride on the gelding, he was well aware of his racing habits.
“At Dubbo in his last win he just seemed to do enough for Matty Cahill so Mr Lundholm told me to be wary of him and not let him get his own way,” Kehoe said.
“Fortunately he knows where the line is.”
Kehoe said he was appreciative of the opportunity to ride Nampara Bullet after Mathew Cahill elected to get on Nothing’ Leica Dame which finished eighth.
“Mr Lundholm said after the Dubbo win that he would do everything he could to get me the ride at Wellington and that happened, thanks also to Dr Kirkby and his wife,” Kehoe said.
“They’ve shown their faith in me and in turn I’ve got my biggest win for some time.”
The win capped off a big weekend for the Dubbo jockey who rode a winning double at Lightning Ridge on Saturday.
Apart from the run of the winner, the performance of second placed Catador was striking.
“It was a very good second,” Dubbo-based trainer Allan Gibson said.
“We knew he would get the distance and that’s why we decided to race him forward, use him up and see what happened.
“Usually he tends to race some 10 lengths off the lead but on this track and with the hill down into the straight you have to be closer.”
