Before Sunday Gayna Williams trained one of the overall favourites for this year’s Country Championships.
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Now she may well have two serious contenders on her hands.
I Am A Cool Kid opened a $6 chance for the Country Championships Final at Royal Randwick earlier this week, having caught the eye in a big way when winning at the Sydney track on Australia Day.
He is set to jump favourite in next month’s Central Districts heat at Mudgee but stablemate Healing Hands may be a threat to that status.
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Healing Hands scored his second career win at Dubbo Turf Club’s showcase meeting, a day headlined by Westlink’s Country Championships Western Racing Association Qualifier (1400m) win.
Healing Hands took out the Dubbo RSL Club Class 1 Handicap (1400m) with champion jockey Greg Ryan in the saddle.
The gelding scored a commanding four-length win, making it two victories and a second from three career starts.
“He's a nice horse and he's still learning and immature at this stage but we'll just give him all the time we need and see where he takes us," Mudgee-based Williams said post-race.
The win followed a strong second at Muswellbrook last time out, the four-year-old running home well to finish second in a 1280m event that day.
That run gave Williams and Ryan the confidence to step Healing Hands up to 1400m.
"We were confident about the 14 (hundred). I thought he'd be good over 14 and eventually he'll probably be better over a mile," Williams said, before praising Ryan.
"He did a good job and been on him for all of his three starts. He knows the horse and knows what to do."
Healing Hands beat home the Peter Stanley-trained The Long Run ($16) while Leo Harland’s The Iceman ($11), originally nominated for the day’s Country Championships qualifier, was third.