Gibbons looks to ride Cups path with promising Baker stayer

Dylan Gibbons was eyeing a second chance at a Melbourne Cup, this time with Bjorn Baker-trained Thebudgiesmugla, after they combined for victory in the listed Queen Elizabeth II Cup (2400m) at Rosehill on Saturday.

Gibbons was second on eventual Caulfield and Melbourne Cup winner Half Yours in a 2000m benchmark race on the same program last year at Rosehill before the Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained talent won the Caloundra Cup next start with Ash Morgan aboard. Jamie Melham later took him the premier Cups double.

Baker’s team was looking to follow a similar path with Thebudgiesmugla, which ground out a three-quarter length win after connections opted for the 2400m race over the 3200m group 2 Brisbane Cup at Eagle Farm.

Assistant trainer Luke Hilton said the Caloundra Cup (2400m) in three weeks was the next target.

“It’s a good form race for a few other races later in the year, so I think that will be a good test,” Hilton said in reference to Half Yours.

“We know he runs the 2400 out strongly, then we can sit back and weigh up options after that.

“On top of the ground, we needed to see him do it if he was going to be competitive in even better races.”

Gibbons said Thebudgiesmugla was “a little ripper”.

“I’ve been looking chance to ride in the Melbourne Cup, so hopefully [it will happen],” he said.

Gibbons, who also won the first on Saturday aboard Mawrooba, rode Okita Soushi to 11th in the 2023 Melbourne Cup.

The Baker stable, meanwhile, will build towards bigger targets with Big Papa after he bounced back from a heavy track failure with an easy 1300m win at Rosehill.

Big Papa kicked clear for a two-length victory under Alysha Collett over stablemate Hezdarnhottoo in the benchmark 78 for the males, making it three wins in six starts. Hilton said Big Papa would rise to stakes-level again, after finishing seventh in the Vo Rogue Plate (1300m) last preparation.

“He’s always shown a lot and this time in he’s a little bit more mature and stronger,” he said.

Grima makes up ground with smart rides

Riding great Darren Beadman praised the cool head of Siena Grima after she improved her claims for the Sydney apprentices’ title with a double for boss Chris Waller at Rosehill.

Grima went to 22 city winners, now seven behind defending champion Braith Nock (29) with seven weeks left in the season, after Nobler survived a late dive and protest from King Pedro, before Surf’s Up cruised to victory.

Four-year-old Nobler made three consecutive wins in the 2000m benchmark 78 handicap, but only just, after Tom Charlton-trained King Pedro fell short by a nose.

King Pedro jockey Anna Roper alleged interference from Nobler at the 200m when she was squeezed out of a run between that horse and Spycatcher. Stewards dismissed the protest, saying it was a shift from Spycatcher that closed the gap.

Beadman, who is guiding Grima as part of Waller’s team, said it was “lovely execution” from the apprentice.

“She had a choice there at the 600 and that was the difference between winning and losing, either riding for luck or following Belle Detelle,” Beadman said.

“She just probably didn’t want to get there too early. In the first, she said, ‘I think I got there a little bit early on the horse’. I said, ‘It’s all about timing. Don’t make the furlong the winning post’.”

Beadman said Nobler would get further and prove a “handy stayer”.

“I think he can make his presence felt at the back end of our spring carnival, so now is probably a good time to tip him out and get him ready for something better,” he said.

Grima then took filly Surf’s Up to a one and a half-length win over Damien in the 1400m benchmark 72 after finding a perfect spot just off the pace early.

“She just had the perfect ride today,” Beadman said.

“Siena rode her with a lot of confidence.”

Emirate, with Reece Jones aboard, broke a two-year drought in the last to give Waller a treble. Apprentice Mollie Fitzgerald had a first city double, winning with Smashing Time (Robert and Luke Price) and Bella Corazon (Annabel and Rob Archibald).

At Eagle Farm, James McDonald claimed the record outright for most Australian group 1 wins in a season, taking Waller-trained Tron Bolt to victory in the JJ Atkins . It put McDonald on 17 victories for 2025-26, one clear of Malcolm Johnston’s 1979-80 mark.

Taylor Marshall claimed a maiden group 1, winning on Spicy Martini in the Stradbroke Handicap.

Hawkes-trained juveniles firing late

A late nomination for Marwooba off a six-day back-up proved a masterstroke as the $400,000 Wootton Bassett gelding gave the Hawkes team consecutive two-year-old Sydney Saturday winners.

The Michael, John and Waynes Hawkes-trained Marwooba ($7) was less than two lengths sixth on Monday at Canterbury over 1250m but relished the 1400m trip at Rosehill to overhaul odds-on favourite Friendly Fire by one and a quarter lengths for a maiden win at his fourth start. Hawkes-trained All Too Hard gelding Why So Hard won the two-year-old race at Randwick a week earlier on debut.

“His run the other day was only a softish run,” Hawkes stable representative Steve Thompson said of Marwooba.

“He had to go back from a bad gate and he really only worked home like he would at home in a track gallop, so when the noms were extended, and he’s got a good constitution this horse, so we elected to put a nom in.”

Llewellyn and Mills strike gold a year on

Hollywood Gold gave Quirindi trainer-owner-breeder Peter Mills a career highlight and Newcastle apprentice Shannen Llewellyn a first Sydney win on a Saturday, a year after they combined at Coonamble.

The five-year-old, well backed into $9.50 after opening at $26 midweek for the class 3 Highway Handicap (1400m) at Rosehill, knuckled down late after a wayward run to beat Concoction by a half-length. It was a fourth win in 14 starts for the gelding and a first metropolitan success for Mills.

It was also a first Highway winner for Llewellyn, who rode Hollywood Gold to victory at Coonamble this time last year.

“He is a cantankerous horse and he was actually my first winner without a country claim back at Coonamble and even then I was in the back seat the whole way, he’s just very aggressive early,” Llewellyn.

“But he can show that turn of foot, he’s just got a lot of unruly in him. He doesn’t want to lay down.”