HAWKESBURY TRIO ON TOP AT KEMBLA GRANGE

SUNDAY: September 28, 2025: ONE horse was named after a former Test cricketer, another prefers good ground, and a third gave her trainer an important season breakthrough.

They added up to a trio of winners for Hawkesbury trainers at Kembla Grange yesterday.

Leading trainer Brad Widdup landed the Midway Maiden Plate (1200m) with Gladstone Grande ($4.80 co-favorite), Phil and Tara Vigouroux took the Conditional Benchmark 68 Handicap (1600m) with Just Shane ($8.50), and Ed O’Rourke won the Provincial Benchmark 64 Handicap (1200m) with $26 outsider Ivana.

The Hawkesbury trio took the number of winners prepared by the local training base to 16 so far for the month, and 30 for not quite the first two months of the new season.

Widdup rounded off a successful week, having scored at Warwick Farm on Wednesday with Money Team and his home track a day later with impressive debutant Young Mister Grace, when Gladstone Grande (apprentice Mitch Stapleford) broke through at his sixth start after two placings.

However, it could have been an even bigger week as Gladstone Grande’s stablemates Waerea ($6) and Hardpoint ($4.40) were edged out in close finishes at Kembla Grange.

Bivouac three-year-old Waerea (Christian Reith), a half-brother to now retired triple Group 1 winner Duais, was making his debut in the CG&E Maiden Handicap (1400m), whilst Hardpoint had to do some work in the Class 1 Handicap (1400m) and also was gallant in defeat.

Widdup explained that Gladstone Grande, a $100,000 yearling purchase in Adelaide, was named after West Indian-born former UK cricketer Gladstone Small, who played 17 Test matches.

“Gladstone Grande keeps improving steadily, and it was good to get a breakthrough with him for Mike Gregg’s Mulberry Racing,” Widdup said today.

“Gladstone Grande is starting to develop and put it all together.

“Having shed his maiden status, I’ll have to decide whether to chase another race in the coming weeks or give him a break.”

Widdup will start Jedibeel (Kerrin McEvoy) in Saturday’s Group 2 Premiere Stakes (1200m) at Royal Randwick as his final test for a berth in the $20m The Everest (1200m) there on October 18.

“Mulberry has a slot in The Everest, and it’s now up to Jedibeel to show he is worthy of contesting that race,” he said.

“I’m really happy with Jedibeel, and prepared to forgive his latest defeat in The Shorts (1100m) at Randwick yesterday week.”

Co-trainers Phil and Tara Vigouroux were thrilled to get another victory with $7000 yearling buy Just Shane.

“We were quite confident about his chances getting back on to good ground,” Tara Vigouroux said.

“Just Shane’s previous two runs (second at Wellington and fourth at Wagga) were good efforts considering he doesn’t like wet tracks.”

The couple has won three races this season; two with Just Shane and another with the promising Unreal Expectation.

Just Shane is part-owned by Tara Vigouroux’s father, former Hawkesbury Race Club chairman Ken Quigley, and the lightly-raced five-year-old has been an excellent money-spinner for his connections.

He started at $15 in each of his first two victories, and was well backed at double figure odds yesterday.

Ed O’Rourke became the 15^th Hawkesbury trainer to hit the winning list this season when the well-named Ivana (her dam is Trumped Up Charges) narrowly took the Benchmark 64 Handicap.

Ridden by Mitchell Bell, she snuck through on the inside to pip Wyong pair, Rod Bailey’s last start winner Norton Road ($13) and John Cooper’s Listins Lass ($15).

Ivana, a four-year-old daughter of Xtravagant, was having only her seventh start, and posted her second win.

She had broken through in a Provincial Maiden (1350m) at Wyong in January, when also partnered by Bell.