Staying Home: Connections of Jimmy Johnstone have decided against a Brisbane Winter Carnival
Brisbane winter carnival plans for talented Kiwi pacer Jimmy Johnstone have been scrapped.
The mid-Canterbury trained five-year-old was being considered for feature races including the Gr.1 $100,000 Blacks A Fake, the Gr.2 $60,000 Sunshine Sprint and the Gr.3 $45,000 4 & 5yo Championship during the month of July before connections ruled against the campaign.
Jimmy Johnstone has not raced since finishing third behind Terror To Love and Arden Rooney in the Gr.3 $48,000 Northern Southland Cup at Invercargill on January 16.
“We thought long and hard about the decision, it was very tempting but we decided to stay local and prepare for another tilt at the New Zealand Cup in November. We’re keen to give Australia a shot with him but will wait another twelve months.” Trainer/driver John Hay said.
The P-Forty Seven – Sammi Franco gelding qualified for last year’s New Zealand Cup after winning the Gr.3 Methven Cup on the grass before scratched from the glamour event on race day owing to a setback.
Jimmy Johnstone has recently returned from a spell in very good order prompting connections to strongly consider the Queensland campaign.
“He’s come back in good shape and the timing of the Queensland winter made very good appeal but after we sat down and weighed up all our options, we decided to bypass on Brisbane.
“A race like the Easter Cup at Addington came up a little too soon and I wasn’t prepared to rush him back for that, we’ve been very patient with him to date and we weren’t going to change at this stage of his career.
“He’ll definitely target all the early spring features like we did last season as we build for the New Zealand Cup again and hopefully he’ll be better for the experience as he will be a year older.”
Hay has fond memories of Brisbane after the richly talented Franco Enforce swept all before him winning both the Queensland and Australian Derby’s in 1997 at Albion Park.
The decorated horseman recently became a double inductee of the New Zealand Harness Racing Hall of Fame.
To be recognized by your peers and become a member of the Hall of Fame in New Zealand, you have either trained more than 500 winners or driven over a 1000 winners.
Hay is also well on his way to knocking over winners of six figures in prizemoney for another season, he hasn’t failed in 18 consecutive years to reach $100,000 or more in stakes with his team.
