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By Ray Hickson

Cassandra Stummer already sees it as a win to have Miss Rebel be her first runner in the Evergreen Turf Country championships on Sunday so she hasn’t really entertained what might happen if she lands in the first two.

Trainer Cassandra Stummer

The 32-year-old Muswellbrook trainer only has a small team in work at present, with three active horses, and Miss Rebel has given her plenty of headaches along the way.

And for this particular six-year-old mare to be her first Championships runner, on her home track, is special to Stummer as she said the owners, all Hunter locals, have shown a lot of faith in her.

Among those owners is John Murphy, who was involved in Miss Rebel’s sire Rebel Dane as well as Golden Slipper winner Fireburn.

“You’ve got to be in so we’re hoping she can run a really good race for us,’’ Stummer said.

“I only have three horses up racing at the minute so I think it’s an achievement to get into this field in this area.

“We all hoped at least one day we can have a go at it so it’s very exciting.”

Miss Rebel had a penchant for being a buck jumper in her early days and that habit almost cost her a start in the Evergreen Turf Hunter & North West Country Championships (1280m) when she was up to her old tricks in January at Port Macquarie.

Stummer said a good part of the reason the mare is so lightly raced, with 17 starts, is due to a tendon injury as a three-year-old which saw her absent for almost two years between her second and third race starts.

“She hasn’t been the easiest horse, she’s definitely the most challenging horse I’ve ever trained,’’ she said.

“She had some mental issues as a young horse and it took me a long time to get her going.

“She used to be a buck jumper and she brought out those colours at Port the other day, but she’s come a long way.

“She’s been going very well all prep, it was just a shame she put on that performance at Port because I think she would have run well there.”

A couple of weeks after her Port Macquarie mishap, Miss Rebel showed she was ready for the Country Championships with a runaway win over the Muswellbrook 1280m on heavy ground a month ago.

It was an important victory which secured her spot in the $150,000 race where the first two home progress to the $1 million Final run over 1400m at Randwick on April 4.

“They put her up seven points which was good because it gets her into field,’’ Stummer said.

“Whether she would get 1400m is another question mark but we’re at home and she showed she could well and truly get 1280m the other day and on a heavy.

“I was happy enough with her trial to keep her ticking over.”

Jake Pracey-Holmes will reunite with the mare on Sunday, he’s ridden her a number of times including two of her three wins and a Highway placing, and Stummer said his style works well with the horse.

“I’m more comfortable putting someone on that knows her because she’s very quirky,’’ she said.

Miss Rebel wins at Muswellbrook on February 9

“I don’t think she is going to get her way, there's going to be more pressure, but she can do it at both ends.

“She has a high cruising speed, she’s not a sit and sprint horse. She likes to roll along and be comfortable in front and stretch out.”

All the fields, form and replays for Sunday's Country Championships meeting at Muswellbrook