Latest News

By Greg Prichard

Local trainer Tony Ball will turn his attention to launching a two-pronged attack on the Hopkins Livermore Cup after the Taree meeting scheduled for Monday was washed out.

The $35,000 Hopkins Livermore Cup, an annual feature race conducted by Manning Valley Race Club, is scheduled to be run over 1400m at the next Taree meeting on Friday week (15th August).

Ball said he would aim both Xtra Approval and Run Rory Run at the race, which is named after two late, great Mid North Coast racing figures in Don Hopkins and Ivan Livermore.

Run Rory Run (Siena Grima) heads out to the barriers at Hawkesbury. Image by Bradley Photographers

Run Rory Run won the race last year and the trainer was looking forward to Run Rory Run going around in a Benchmark 66 Handicap over 1262m at the washed-out meeting because of the seven-year-old gelding’s great record on heavy tracks.

Run Rory Run has raced 12 times in heavy going for five wins, three seconds and a third.

Six-year-old gelding Xtra Approval’s record in heavy going isn’t as good as Run Rory Run’s, but it’s still appealing for when the rain is around.

Xtra Approval has raced 19 times in the heavy for three wins, a second and a third. He also has three wins and three placings from 26 starts in soft going.

“Rory will go straight to the Hopkins-Livermore Cup from here,” Ball said.

“It would’ve been good to run him in the heavy on Monday because he likes it so much, but he doesn’t need another run before the cup.

“He’s pretty fit, he’ll be right. He won this race in pretty good style last year on a heavy track.

“He’ll have another couple of pieces of work between now and then. I obviously won’t mind if it stays in the heavy range.

“Xtra Approval ran a good race last start when he was second in the Maclean Cup at Grafton.

“He doesn’t mind a heavy track. He’s not as good in it as Rory, but he’ll go around in it for sure. He’s looking good at the moment.”

Ball said wining the Hopkins Livermore Cup was an honour. The two men were highly respected racing administrators.

“Don Hopkins was a school-teacher back when I was a kid, so I knew him for a long time,” Ball said. “He taught me in high school at Kempsey.

"He was an excellent teacher, one of the best I had. And when I was working for (trainer) Neil Godbolt at Port Macquarie he trained a lot of horses that were owned by Ivan.

"He was pretty much Ivan’s private trainer, so I knew Ivan for a long time as well.”