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By Brett Kitching
General Manager
Ipswich Turf Club
Swell gets up for Occhy
World Champion Surfer Mark Occhilupo had his first visit to the Ipswich racetrack in mid-November and went home a winning owner after his galloper Ground Swell won the second last event on the card.
“Occhy” was on cloud nine and talking up the adrenalin rush of a race win being equal to any adrenalin rush he has experienced from a World Championship surfing ride.
Occhilupo has been based on the Gold Coast for 20 years and was keen to return there after the race to get home to his wife who was due to give birth to their second child.
The win by Ground Swell, who was named by the surfing owner, was a smart win by a galloper who had not raced since the Queensland Derby in 2005.
Eighteen months off racing is a long time out and it was a great training effort by Liam Birchley to have the five-year-old gelding ready to win a 1200m race from barrier 13 at Ipswich.
Jockey Shane Scriven echoed these thoughts when he dismounted and enthusiastically claimed a few more wins in store for Ground Swell in the near future.
Scriven also thought the son of Lord Ballina would get stronger with more distance as well.
Earlier on the same day, Ipswich trainer Trish Arnold trained her second winner in two weeks when Earlstoun Fair won the 800m Class 2 event.
This four-year-old grey mare by Kenfair has collected a prize money cheque in nine of her 12 starts for owner Larry Myles who trained the mare before transferring her to Arnold for her current campaign.
Another local trainer in Bill Abbey tasted double success and moved to second on the Ipswich Premiership on Melbourne Cup Day which continues to grow at Ipswich.
In a Circle and Cuvee Kiss provided the two winners for Abbey.
Further afield during the late Spring, the form of Ipswich Cup Day winners held up strongly around the nation.
Ipswich Cup winner Sphenophyta was subsequently purchased by connections of the Lee Freedman stable before striking Group 1 success in Melbourne in the Turnbull Stakes.
Hasta La Ciao Ciao easily won the Gai Waterhouse Classic for fillies and mares in June and again easily won the last race on Sandown Classic Day.
Impaler won the Eyeliner Stakes in June and while not having raced at the time of writing, ran a brilliant time of a tick over 32 seconds for 600m in an exhibition gallop in November.
Ima Joker and Coccolare the two-year-old and three-year-old winners in June, both ran placings in November in town and are promising wins as well.
The next Ipswich Cup Day on June 16 this year follows a number of feature meetings for Ipswich.
On Saturday January 13 a family fun day is planned, Ladies Day is on March 9, the combined Legs Foot Racing and Ipswich Festival race day is on May 5 and on May 7 the running of the Labour Day Cup is at Ipswich.
Combine these events with regular mid-week racing and growing functions numbers and 2007 will be another busy year for the ITC.
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