Brown Back to Win Hometown Taree Cup

Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00

Sydney's newly crowned champion jockey Corey Brown has another long-standing ambition in his sights at Taree on Friday.

Brown hails from Taree and began his riding career on the mid-north coast before he transferred to Sydney to complete his apprenticeship with Neil Campton at Rosehill.

He is returning to his home town on Friday for the Tallwoods Taree Gold Cup meeting with his sights set on achieving his long held desire to win the feature race.

Incredibly Brown has ridden in only one Taree Cup, finishing unplaced on Elpitha in 1995.

He has since been denied the chance to ride in the Taree Cup by a frustrating sequence of suspensions or injuries.

Those setbacks included the disappointment of missing out on riding the 1998 winner Stop Flirting, trained by his master Neil Campton.

Brown lost the mount on Stop Flirting when he was injured 24 hours before the race with Port Macquarie jockey Peter Graham his last minute replacement.

Brown will ride the Neville McBurney-trained Go Bint in Friday's $25,000 Tallwoods Taree Gold Cup, a significant booking in regard to the Wyong trainer's outstanding record in the 2000m event.

McBurney has won the Taree Cup three times since 1986 with Allez Triomphe, Royal Marine and Planet Hollywood to share the training record for the race with leading local mentor Ross Stitt.

Stitt won his third Taree Cup last year with Shoemaker after his previous victories with Critic's Pride and Fun Road.

Shoemaker will again line-up in this year's Taree Gold Cup in an attempt to become the first dual winner since 1974.

He will be ridden again by Robert Thompson, who recorded his third Taree Cup win last year after his previous wins on Black Benson (1989) and Royal Marine (1990).

Brown's riding commitments will prevent him from attending the gala Taree Cup calcutta dinner at the Bushland Drive racecourse function centre on Thursday night.

However others special guests at the dinner will include racing and entertainment personalities Ken Callander and Ian Turpie.

PIC - Quentin Lang.

Media Release - NSW CRC