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By Geoff Newling

Rex will be cheering for Rexx when the $101 pop (on TAB) runs in Thursday's $150,000 Carlton Draught Coffs Harbour Cup.

Rexx, the thoroughbred, is a five-year-old gelding trained by Ian Cook at Guyra, and Rex Ellis is one of 12 members of a Guyra syndicate, that races Rexx.

Ian Cook laughed when told of the coincidence of Rex owning Rexx. He wasn’t laughing about the outside barrier (14) though.

“We took him to Sydney for a Highway (after a win at Grafton) and he drew the outside there too,” he recalled. “He had to do a lot of work to get across there.”

Ian bought Rexx for $10,000 online: “I was looking for a horse,” he said.

“I’d just bought him when the boys rang me asking if I might get another horse for them, so I just put them into him and things have gone on from there.”

A first-up fifth at Scone was followed by another fifth at Grafton before he won at Grafton, over the Coffs Cup 1600m distance, and then his testing eighth in the Sydney Highway.

“The boys have fallen madly in love with him,” he laughed as well.

The boys (and one female) are: Steve Kliendienst, Beau Orchard, Logan Beechey, Matthew Simpson, Mal Gaukroger, Peter Collins, Adam Mendes, Boyd Stanley, Hayden Raper, David “Chook” Lyes, Rex Ellis and Lisa Ellis.

That Rexx is rated a $101 chance on TAB fixed odds today doesn’t matter to Ian, the syndicate members and even the horse.

“He can’t read or write,” Ian said of Rexx. “He’s been working well. He’s fit and he will try.”

That’s all Ian asks: “Be nice if he was to win. We’ve also got Successor in the last as well. He's at $31 (in from $41).”

While the $150,000 Coffs Cup is a highlight it might not be his 'grand final'. "The long-range plan is to win the Guyra Cup,” Ian said of the home town feature.

“We might go to the Moree Cup after this. We did have him at Doomben on Saturday but they’ve closed the borders there so we’ll stay at Coffs.”

View the final fields with full form & race replays for Coffs Harbour here