Horse Racing / Gary Crispe / 22 January 2012 / Leave a comment Free Bet View Market

Gary Crispe of 'racingandsports' will be humming along during Tamworth's world renowned music festival but is more excited about the local race meeting boasting an excellent seven-race card.

The feature, no less, is the Country Music Cup over the 1000m dash that assembles some handy short-course dashers.

The horse to beat is the Scone-trained Sutton Friend, which resumes from a spell.

The consistent seven-year-old and 11-time winner has an excellent record fresh-up, winning four times from seven previous attempts, a statistic he can improve further on this afternoon. Sutton Friend has not raced since, finishing a close third behind Scussy Moola over 1400m on the Tamworth track back in April of 2011.

Interestingly, last campaign he resumed over the Tamworth 1000m in benchmark 70 class with an excellent win over the capable city-class sprinter Eripsni and Sly Lu under 57.5kgs after the claim for young Singh.

However, this afternoon he carries just a kilo and a half more and will have the services of champion country rider Greg Ryan who has two previous victories aboard the Greg Bennett-trained galloper from four rides. Sutton Friend should settle off the speed and be powering home late, rating as the horse to beat.

Most opposition should come from the local Sue Grills-trained veteran Studio Star which brings some consistent performances into the race.

His last win was four starts back at Quirindi over 1200m but his form since has held up well with a close-up fourth at Inverell two back and then a close second to Sutton Queen in the Gilgandra Town Plate over 1100m last time out.

Apprentice Sophie Young, who has been aboard the sprinter in his last four outings, will retain the ride, importantly reducing his weight by her three kilo claim down to 53kgs, something he may need to offset the one to three disadvantage in head to head match-ups thus far with Sutton Friend.

Next best is the Craig Martin-trained Scarbank, which looks the improver coming off a handy fresh-up run last start second at Inverell in The Shorts over 1010m.

On that occasion he started from the outside barrier and had no luck in the run, being trapped very deep throughout. Despite this, he was finishing off better than anything else in the race and will strip much fitter for this afternoon's race.

Scarbank's second-up form is sound, being a winner in that state and Jessica Drury will retain the mount. Although drawn awkwardly again, if he gets some cover early I can see Scarbank proving hard to hold out.

Enjoy the race (and the music festival)


GARY'S TOP PICKS IN RACE 6@TAMWORTH
(1) Sutton Friend
(2) Studio Star
(3) Scarbank