The Snake Gully Cup Carnival was delayed by an hour and a half on Friday before the first race commenced with jockey Robyn Freeman falling off and being kicked by a horse.
The first race didn’t take off until another ambulance arrived after Freeman had to be taken from the course with a suspected broken leg.
A NSW Ambulance spokesperson said paramedics assessed one person at the scene before taking them to Wagga Base Hospital by road ambulance for further treatment.
All race times were changed due to the incident.
The day’s main race – the Snake Gully Cup over 1400 metres – was due to be held at 4.40pm but was pushed back to 6.22pm.
Clever Art took out the main race and carried 54 kilograms at the odds of $13. The six year old mare by Nicconi had good form going in to the $100,000 race after a second placing at Albury in a benchmark 85. Two starts before that, Jeff Penza guided her home at Moruya in a filed of 8 to claim $22,000 of the total $50,000 on offer.
Based at Kembla Grange, Trainer Mitchell Beer has a relatively large stable, with 64 thoroughbreds currently under his care. Beer obviously thinks highly of Clever Art as he has nominated her again for this Saturday at Illawarra, just a week after her Snake Gully Cup win.
He said, “We thought she was a terrific chance going into the Snake Gully Cup. I think she opened at $26 and was pretty well supported into that market and I think we all thought it all came down to the luck she’d have in running and fortunately it all unfolded for her and she was good enough to win.
“Asgarda came in second and she’s a pretty well credentialed mare. She was always going to be hard to run down.
“It was great to not only win it, but to win it against some nice horses is really encouraging.
“The Club does such a terrific job with it and that’s why we are always so keen to get back there and support the meeting. We were down Albury way for quite a few years and now that we are up at Kembla it’s a meeting that we always love to go back to.
“Clever Art is a big chance of running here at Kembla on Saturday. She pulled up really well after Gundagai.
She’s a mare in form and she’s going well. As long as she continues to please us throughout the week she will most likely run here at Kembla on Saturday.
“We were in Albury for five years and we always had a bit of luck at that carnival. We had a double on Snake Gully Cup Day, we’ve won the feature sprint before and we almost won a Snake Gully Cup a couple of years ago and it’s good that it doesn’t elude us any more.
“It’s a great one to tick off as it’s such an iconic race to win.
