Julie Maughan's Racday Report Fri 27 January 2017 - Tamworth City Cup

BETTER THAN MAX WINS TAMWORTH CITY CUP by Julie Maughan

Better Than Max was in terrific form in taking out the $12,000 Garrard’s Horse & Hound Tamworth City Cup with Sydney reinsman Brendan Barnes taking the reins.

Two years ago the 19 year old finished third in the Tamworth Cup behind the Bart Cockburn trained Katesaroyal.

This time it was a much favourable result and considering the horse and reinsman linked up just before the race the win was even more significant for Barnes who spoke highly of Better Than Max.

"He had good form going into that race" said Barnes

"I have seen the horse race around Menangle and I was confident before the race just on his class"

Trained at Medowie by Darren Reay - Better Than Max has had 17 career wins - which included three wins at Menangle with the last visit to Tamworth being back in December 2015 also showing a win – and 32 placing from 72 career starts.

Brendan Barnes gained his first drive behind Better Than Max thanks to a recommendation from a fellow reinsman.

"Normally Mitchell Reese drives the horse and he was unavailable so he recommended me to Darren"

"He was the best horse in the race and you can drive them a bit harder and it pays off – it was good to win a feature race at a good racing carnival like Tamworth" added Barnes.

Better Than Max commenced from the 10 barrier draw with Barnes electing to sit at the tail of the field in the 2360 metre event.

"The horse felt good in the race but I was thinking at about the 1,000 metre mark it was a matter of how is his horse going to get into the race"

With The Pub Group Gold Nugget winner Culinary Delight from the Mark Callaghan stables setting a solid tempo out in the lead Better Than Max had to generate a four wide run around the field as the bell sounded for the final lap.

"In the end we had to go four wide and he did it comfortable" said the Sydney based reinsman who had attend the Junee meeting the night prior.

Better Than Max had a half head win over the Nathan Xuerub trained Sams Cam with John McCarthy in the spider and Culinary Delight 1.7 metres away third which granted Barnes his first win on the Tamworth Paceway.

With sectionals of 29.4 sec for the first quarter, 28.7 sec for the sec, 30.5 sec third quarter and 32.6 sec for the final the mile rate provided for 2360 metres was 1.59.4

"Darren (Reay) was happy after the race – he was proud – the horse went super" added Barnes

"I like the Tamworth track and it was a good carnival – it covered a wide span of trainers from everywhere" concluded Barnes.