BROWNIE'S BLOG: HEADING FOR CALOUNDRA CUP DAY - ONE OF MY FAVOURITE MEETINGS OF THE YEAR
By Damian Browne | Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Damian Browne is looking forward to one of his favourite meetings, the Kendrick Racing Caloundra Cup race-day which will be hosted by the Sunshine Coast Turf Club on Saturday. In this week’s edition of Brownie’s Blog, Damian’s weekly personal blog which is exclusive to HRO, Damian revisits a couple of his hits and misses over the years on Caloundra Cup day and he heaps praise on the Sunshine Coast track which he believes is one of the better tracks he has ridden on around the world.
The Caloundra Cup race-day, which takes place on Saturday, has always been one of my favourite race meetings.
It’s always special when you win your home Cup. That is because of a combination of few things. Obviously, your family and friends will be around on the day which makes it all the more enjoyable.
For me though, the underlying point is that for so many years I went to work most days at the Sunshine Coast Turf Club and when you do that … you know seeing that track every day … you want to win their feature events.
I have been lucky enough to win the ‘Grand Slam’ in terms of the Caloundra Cup days feature races.
I have won three Caloundra Cups. I think I’ve also won four Sunshine Coast Guineas and one Glasshouse. I did run second in the Glasshouse a few times but I only got one win there.
It was a long time before I won any of them but then they came in a bit of a rush. It was probably only in the last seven or eight years that I won the majority of those, if not all of them.
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My sole win in the Glasshouse was an important win in my career.
I won it on Woorim in July 2011. I stayed with Woorim and seven and a half months later we won the Oakleigh Plate … a Group 1 at Caulfield.
He was probably one of my first horses that I travelled interstate to ride. In fact, over a nine-month period I went down to Melbourne seven times and to Sydney once to partner Woorim which says a lot about what I thought of the horse given that I not a real fan of travelling too far for rides.
Obviously, we then had that Group 1 success and things started to snowball for me personally from then. Actually, a good case can be made that Woorim launched the rest of my career.
I didn’t choose Woorim over Buffering at that time but the fact that I was riding Woorim was one of the main reasons I couldn’t ride Buffering to start off with … but what a nice progression it was from there once I did team up with Buffering.
Youi couldn’t get two horses with more different racing patterns. One out the front. One out the back. Both did me proud.
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Of course, arguably the most referred to Sunshine Coast Guineas was the one won by Winx, a victory which was the start of her majestic unbeaten run.
I was riding a horse called Merion in that race and I finished seventh.
I didn’t see her flashing through in the run so I wasn’t aware of her brilliance in that moment but I have since been very well aware of where I finished and where she finished … and what a bad decision it was on my part not to ride her.
That's right, I did have the option to ride Winx in that race and I have been reminded many times of my decision.
I thought I had a better ride at the time. As we all now know … I didn’t have a better ride.
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The Sunshine Coast Turf Club track deserves special mention.
It is probably the most raced on track in Australia. If not, it’s got to be very close to it.
Murray Weeding has done an amazing job to turn it out week in and week out the way he does.
It is the fairest track, certainly in Queensland anyway, and … I’m not trying to be biased here … I think it is one of the better tracks I have ridden on around the world.
I always loved riding there.
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