Cafe Terrace is aiming to make it two straight victories after scoring his first win for Cowra trainer George Hoy last start at Wellington.
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Cafe Terrace is booked to race in the Breakout River Meats Benchmark 50 Handicap (1700m) at Cowra on Saturday, gunning for a second win for Hoy since joining the Cowra-based stable early last year.
It took the five-year-old gelding by Excellent Art (GB) and Molly Dot Com (NZ) 20 races to chalk up a victory for Hoy, who said he bought Cafe Terrace thinking he’d be a stayer.
Racing at a range of distances from 950m to 1600m, Cafe Terrace finally won a Class 1 Handicap over 1400m at Wellington on June 7.
Hoy said a six week stint under the care of his daughter in Canberra helped Cafe Terrace find some rhythm resulting in the victory.
“He didn’t race down there, they only worked him. Richard Bensley told us he’d rode two wins on a horse in Canberra but this horse finishes better. We worked him and set him up for a first start and he came fourth at Wellington and put in a good run. A fortnight later he got the win.”
Cafe Terrace faces a rise in distance on Saturday to 1700m.
It’ll be the first time he’s run the distance for Hoy and only the second time in his 33 start career. The only time was at Grafton and he finished third.
“That was in a showcase 68 rating so it was a pretty decent race,” Hoy said.
“He’ll go alright. We drew 16 but we’ll come out of 12. We were out of 11 at Wellington and went to the front. We’ll use the same tactics here, get to the lead and try to hold on.”
Apprentice jockey Ashleigh Stanley has the ride and will look to continue her form on Cafe Terrace having notched a win and two fourths from the three times she’s linked with him.
“She handles the horse alright. She likes the horse,” Hoy said.
Hoy’s been training for 41 years and has been based in Cowra since 1980.
“I’ve trained a few winners here,” he said.
Racing starts at 1.21pm on Saturday. There’s six races on the program with the Breakout River Meats Benchmark 50 Handicap closing proceedings at 4.36pm.
Further Cowra interest on the day include jockeys Michael Travers and Eleanor Webster-Hawes and horses trained by Andrew Molloy, Danny Parsons, Michael Lynch and Joe Curran.
