Hurst Has Another Shot At Wagga Cup

Nathan Hurst will head to the Riverina on Friday night with Make Some Magic and Strong Sapphire in an attempt to win the Wagga Cup.

Eglington trainer Nathan Hurst will head to the Riverina on Friday night with Make Some Magic and Strong Sapphire in an attempt to win the Wagga Cup. It will be the second time the race has been run in 2012 and Strong Sapphire finished a close third behind the Frank O’Sullivan trained Marooned in the May edition.

“Strong Sapphire is first up on Friday night but she has had two trials to get her ready for this race and finished third in her last one behind Beetson at Bathurst on Monday night,” Hurst said.

“Strong Sapphire is a really good country carnival horse because she loves racing on the tighter tracks, you can just put her to sleep on the fence and when she gets her opportunity she has the ability to take it. The reason I decided to give her a bit of a break was because there weren’t many Carnival Of Cups races on during the colder months but now have they started up again she is back.”

Make Some Magic has drawn barrier number two on Friday night and Hurst was pleased to see the mare draw prominently.

“Make Some Magic has been racing without a lot of luck and it was good to see her get some last start and win again, obviously Friday night is a going to be a step up for her but I think she deserves her chance in a race like this, especially from a good gate.”

“I am going to drive Make Some Magic and Angela Hedges will be driving Strong Sapphire in the Wagga Cup.”

Hurst has Regal Eagle engaged in the Million Dollar Cam Classic, a $14,000 for pacers assessed C6 or better.

“He’s going pretty good, he has been forced to come from the tail of the field recently and it is only a small field this week so it should suit him but once again it doesn’t look to be an easy race on paper to win.”

“I thought about going to Menangle on Friday but my horses tend to race better on the smaller tracks and the prizemoney on offer at Wagga on Friday is very strong.”

Harness Racing NSW (HRNSW) is the controlling body for harness racing in New South Wales with responsibility for commercial and regulatory management of the industry including 31 racing clubs across the State. HRNSW is headed by an industry-appointed Board of Directors and is independent of Government.

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