PORT Macquarie’s $50,000 Carlton Mid Queen Of the North has produced several winners in its 10-year history who have gone on to much greater heights.
Heavenly Glow was the most memorable of those, winning in 2008 before later going on to win two Group One races, the Arrowfield Stud Stakes at Rosehill and the Australian Oaks at Randwick.
Robert Thompson rode her to all those wins and landed his third Queen Of The North last Friday on the Darren Smith-trained favourite Idle Chat.
However, the win came at what could be great personal cost.
Idle Chat got the upper hand in the last 50 metres to beat last year’s winner Al Nova with the Marc Quinn-trained Cultural hanging on for third after leading early.
The Neil Godbolt-trained Al Nova is raced by a syndicate that includes Thompson’s mother Phyllis and his daughter-in-law, Alison Thompson.
“It’s just as well I’m not relying on a ride home (to Cessnock) with Mum or I’d probably be walking,” Thompson said.
“But that’s all part of the fun of racing,”
Idle Chat will go to the paddock for a short spell before being prepared for Brisbane’s winter carnival.
“She won’t be aimed at the top races but at some of the lesser sprints,” the stable’s racing manager, David Dyson, said.
“There are plenty of nice races for her up there.”
Showers throughout the day saw the track downgraded to a slow six, conditions which Dyson said suited the mare.
“She loves the sting out of the ground and that is why the winter tracks in Brisbane will suit her,” Dyson said.
“She is only a lightly-framed mare and we have to space her runs because it takes her a little time to recover.
“A short break will help her to strengthen up and hopefully grow a little more as well.”
Port Macquarie trainers dominated the minor events with Godbolt winning the Kopparberg Cider Two-Year-Old with Little Jatz (Marlon Dolendo), Tas Morton winning the Great Northern Benchmark 60 with Nuclear Class (Gabrielle Coleman) while the Jenny Graham-trained Kastelos (Samantha Clenton) won the New Carlton Cold Benchmark 50.
