AWESOME WEEKEND FOR HAWKESBURY FOURSOME

SEPTEMBER 7, 2025: THERE’S no place like home!

Hawkesbury trainers Matt Vella and Jason Attard each got their new season off to a successful start at the local track’s increasingly popular annual Country Music raceday yesterday.

And their victories could not have been more popular with racegoers, both winners starting favorite in their respective races.

Vella landed the Greg Hales Memorial Provincial Maiden Plate (1000m) with recent acquisition Twinkling Star ($2), and Attard followed suit by taking the Australian Horse Arenas Midway Benchmark 68 Handicap (1400m) with Cryptonic ($2.90).

Both trainers gained extra satisfaction from their good results.

Vella broke in Twinkling Star and gave her an early education, whilst Attard mulled over a difficult decision with dual acceptor Cryptonic before deciding to stay at home rather than go to Royal Randwick for a Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1400m).

Vella, who mixes his horse breaking and education business with training a few horses, wasn’t initially planning to start Twinkling Star for the first time under his banner.

“Twinkling Star is a tall, leggy filly with a great action but she has a few issues,” he explained today.

“A wind operation meant that she is limited in terms of her racing career, and Sir Own Glenn (Go Bloodstock Australia) sent her back to me after she had five starts for Michael Freedman, and was placed at Kembla Grange and Hawkesbury in March.

“She went really well in an 800m trial at home on August 25 (second to fellow Hawkesbury trainer Blake Ryan’s Missie Lee, whom she reversed the placings yesterday), and I was intending to give her another trial.

“However, when she galloped nicely last Tuesday morning, I decided she could go to the 1000m Maiden even though still not fully wound up.

“I took blinkers off and left the tongue tie on, and she did the job well.

“Twinkling Star is a bit of a stargazer, but lifted when she heard Missie Lee finishing strongly.

“Our goal was to win a race with her (Twinkling Star is out of a sister to King’s Legacy) and boost her pedigree page, and we’ve achieved that.

“I feel there is some improvement with her, and hopefully we can get one or two more runs out of her before she goes off to start a breeding career.”

Ridden by Mitchell Bell, Twinkling Star defeated Missie Lee ($3.30) and Newcastle trainer Nathan Doyle’s Bifurcation ($8.50).

Vella hopes to have another starter (Everybody Rise, in a CG&E Maiden Plate, 1100m) when Hawkesbury races again on Thursday.

“Everybody Rise is a full brother to dual Group 1 winner Russian Revolution, and has been placed at six of his eight starts,” he said.

Everybody Rise fetched $1.4m as a 2023 Inglis Australian Easter yearling, and was onsold online earlier this year to Blueblood Thoroughbreds for $75,000.

“I enjoy the challenge of trying to win a race with these horses,” Vella said. “There’s no pressure.”

. ATTARD thought long and hard about taking Cryptonic to Randwick before choosing to start the five-year-old at his home track.

It proved the right move as the stallion, ridden by Keagan Latham, led home another local quinella, narrowly defeating fellow Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup’s Bella Khadijah ($3.60).

“I felt Cryptonic had a good chance at Randwick, but at the same time it was a very winnable race at home,” Attard said.

“That wasn’t a given, but I expected him to be hard to beat.

“Cryptonic has come back bigger and stronger this time, and is shaping as though he will manage 1600m.

“Full credit to Keagan for his winning ride. It was a bit messy mid-race and as a result he had to go sooner than expected, but still got him home, albeit narrowly.

“He really suits the horse.”

Attard, who has 15 horses in work, will look for another suitable race for Cryptonic, who resumed with an excellent second over 1200m at Kembla Grange on August 1 before doing his best work late when eighth, again at 1200m, in a Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap at Randwick on August 23.

. Wendy Haynes and Fabio Martino made it four weekend wins for the Hawkesbury training base at Mudgee and Gundagai respectively today.

Haynes scored at Mudgee with Flats (apprentice Olivia Chambers), the $31 outsider in a field of six, in the Maiden Plate (1400m).

Having only his fourth start, the five-year-old defeated Spirit Of Saintly ($18) and fellow Hawkesbury trainer Ed O’Rourke’s Pawa ($2.60).

At Gundagai, Martino made it two in a row (and three from her last four) with Brutal mare Grande Bellezza.

Ridden by Deanne Panya, the four-year-old mare defeated Astunner ($18) and Tokyo Ice ($12) in the Benchmark 66 Handicap (1180m) to take her record to four wins from only seven starts.

Grande Bellezza had won a Benchmark 50 Handicap (1150m) at Gilgandra on August 16, and has been really well placed by her trainer.