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Kevin Keys after win in the race his father dominated
05 July 2012
by Alan Parker
Kevin Keys with Tartary Gladiator.
The Winter Cup was first run on 6th September 1913 for a stake of 80 sovereigns and was won by a horse called Dandy for trainer/driver A A Abbott.
Somebody should have told those in charge at the time that winter ended on 31st August.
The race was not run again until 1932 and then only run three further times until after the cessation of wartime hostilities in 1945.
The 1947, 1948 and 1949 Winter Cups were won by Leo Keys, either as a trainer or driver and in 1965 and 1967 Leo Keys won the race again to give him five successes in the race.
Leo Keys’ son Kevin Keys will put the harness on pole-marker Tartary Gladiator and Itsallabout Nicole in tomorrow night’s Winter Cup.
Leo Keys drove Loyal Rey to victory in the 1947 Winter Cup for trainer Jim Hand and then trained Indian Clipper and Bulldozer to wins in the 1948 and 1949 Winter Cups.
Indian Clipper was driven by Alex McLean while Leo Keys drove Bulldozer.
Keys trained and drove Festive Spring when that gelding won the 1965 Winter Cup and was at the reins when Nookenburra won in 1967 for trainer Ted Abbott.
A win tomorrow night would give Kevin Keys his first win in a Winter Cup
Diamond Beejay has lot to live up to in 3yo Fillies Sires Series final
The scratching of Shes So Fair has given the first emergency Diamond Beejay a start from barrier four in tomorrow night’s $100,000 State Sires Series Final for 3yo fillies.
That is the good news – the bad news is that Diamond Beejay is drawn outside the ultra-short priced favourite Sensational Gabby.
Diamond Beejay is the first foal from former champion race-mare Sovereign Beejay which won 26 races and a little over $405,000 in her career.
Sovereign Beejay is the only mare to have won the 2yo, 3yo and 4yo legs of the State Sires Series.
Diamond Beejay needs to channel her mother’s outstanding ability tomorrow night as a clash between Sensational Gabby and Sovereign Beejay would be worth going a long way to see.
