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By Colin Hodges

Apprentice jockey Caine Stuart, a former dual Australian judo champion, made all the right moves when winning the 1200m Inland Petroleum-Gulargambone Gold Cup on Saturday aboard the Brett Robb-trained Rothgate.

Despite bitterly cold weather a tremendous crowd celebrated the 100th year of racing at Gulargambone and witnessed an exciting finish to the Cup.

Given a nice run behind the leaders Running Bear and Accrue by Caine Stuart, Rothgate ($4.60) held off by a head So Country (Georgina McDonnell, $2.40 favourite) with Starlink (Zoe Hunt, $4.60) a handy third.

Apprentice Caine Stuart returns after a recent Wellington win. Image by Janian McMillan (Racing Photography)

Rothgate won the Gulgong Cup in June while So Country was the last start winner of the Collie Cup at Gilgandra.

Caine Stuart (24yo) who transferred his apprenticeship to Brett Robb earlier this year, had previously been with stables at Bendigo and Grafton and rode his first winner at Roma in Queensland.

Kath Bell-Pitomac, the 42yo mother of two teenagers, had a week to remember when she rode a winning double on the longshots Cheeky Secrets and Biddaddaba in the opening races at Gulargambone after winning on River Rogue at Narromine the previous Sunday.

Racing in a handy position, the Wayne Martyn, Coonabarabran-trained Cheeky Secrets ($26) which had some betting ring support, finished best to win the 1800m Gilgandra Toyota Benchmark 50 Handicap by a half length from Always Fiorente (Zoe Hunt, $3.60 fav) and Napoli (Jake Pracey-Holmes, $11).

Taken straight to the lead by Kath Bell-Pitomac, the Debbie Prest, Cootamundra-trained Biddaddaba ($25) was a length winner over Stolen Show (Billy Cray, $6) and Perasta (Zoe Hunt, $6) in the 1100m AJF Brien & Sons-Nutrien Ag Solutions Maiden Handicap.

Now retired to Orange, former western area racing administrator Michael Kennedy from the Come-By-Chance area, is the breeder and owner of the Clint Lundholm-trained Haronya, winner of the 1400m Gulargambone Bowling Club Maiden Plate.

Well placed behind the leaders Love Ain’t Free and Phils Colours by Jake Pracey-Holmes, Haronya ($7) beat Firefinch (Jacob Stiff, $3.20 fav) by a head with Criminal Art (Billy Cray, $4) third.

Popular Sky Racing presenter Mick Wallace travelled from the central coast to see Firestorm Boy, which he part owns, win the 1200m AMPS Agribusiness Class 1 Handicap.

Casablanca and Capital Beauty set a fast pace before Firestorm Boy (Jake Pracey-Holmes, $21 to $15), continuing the great run of recent success for Dubbo trainer Garry Lunn, hit the lead in the straight and won by a half-head from the strong finishing Cool Space (Jacob Stiff, $4.20) while over two lengths away third was Showtime Sassy (Ken Dunbar, $4.20).

The Nikki Pollock , Scone-trained team are regular visitors to western area meetings and in the 1450m Halcroft & Bennett Benchmark 45 Handicap, Maralago (Tilly McCarroll, $6) with an inside run scored a close win over stablemate Mad Harry (Jordan Quince, $6) and Artell (Jake Pracey-Holmes, $5).

Mendooran, the oldest race club on the Castlereagh, hosts the Cup meeting on Saturday with the Black Nugget Cup the feature at Mudgee (TAB) on Sunday.

View the full results with race replays for Gulargambone here