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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Cameron Crockett is quietly confident he can win the $1 million Evergreen Turf Country Championships Final with talented mare Dances With Hooves - if he can get there via Tamworth on Sunday.

It’s been two months since the four-year-old ran second behind Autumnmation over a mile at Randwick with Crockett keen to keep her on the fresh side for the 1400m of the $150,000 Hunter & North West Country Championships.

“I feel like she’d be more of a chance of winning the Final if she qualifies at Tamworth,’’ Crockett said.

“It’s been proven over again you nearly need a 1600m horse to win it. If she got through it I’d be more confident going into the Final than going into the heat.”

Dances With Hooves winning at Scone (Pic: Steve Hart)

Dances With Hooves must run first or second at Tamworth to give Crockett his wish of getting a month’s break into the Final at Randwick on April 5.

While he won a Central Districts Championship when he trained at Mudgee in 2019, his best result in the Country Championships came in 2022 when Commando Hunt ran second in both the qualifying race at Tamworth and in the Final.

Commando Hunt bumped into Another One in that Final and trained on to win the Scone and Muswellbrook Cups the following year.

“She’s pretty smart, she’d be the best horse I’ve run in a qualifier,’’ Crockett said.

“Obviously Commando Hunt almost won but he didn’t have the credentials that she has at the same time.

“We trialled her a couple of weeks ago at Muswellbrook, she’s a filly that takes a lot of maintenance.

“She’s not straightforward but if you’ve got her 90 per cent right you know she’ll give it 110 per cent.”

Crockett, who trains at Scone but hails from Mudgee, said he wanted to win the Mudgee Cup with Dances With Hooves back in December but when that race was washed out he elected to focus on the Country Championships.

She posted her fifth win a week later at Newcastle meaning he’d have to tread carefully to remain eligible.

“In hindsight I wish we didn’t go to Newcastle and we’d run in the Mudgee Cup (rescheduled to) last weekend,’’ he said.

“As much as I wanted to win the Mudgee Cup, it was probably my best chance to win one for some time, we decided to go chips in first-up into Tamworth and go in fresh.

“If that doesn’t come off we’ve got a position in the Wild Card at Scone.”

Apprentice William Stanley retains the ride on Dances With Hooves at Tamworth.

Upcoming NSW country race meetings – Monday: Port Macquarie, Bathurst; Tuesday: Scone; Thursday: Grafton, Moree; Friday: Dubbo; Saturday: Ballina, Corowa, Tottenham (non-TAB); Sunday: Tamworth (Evergreen Turf Country Championships).

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