Another win for Cessnock trained Youthful King

In a ride timed to perfection, champion jockey Robert Thompson stormed down the outside to win running away.

Youthful King, now nine, had taken out the Jungle Juice Cup on July 1 and had been sparingly raced with starts at Randwick and Coffs Harbour leading up to last Sunday’s win under the hefty impost of 60 kilograms.

Youthful King has now amassed prizemoney totalling $223,000 for trainer Jeremy Sylvester and co-owner Delice Watson.

Sylvester would have also have been thrilled with the first up performance of Pacific Queen in the maiden over 1000 metres.

Having its first start for the stable, Pacific Queen is a 5-year-old Choisir mare who was having its fourth start, going down by the nose margin.

Thompson had a good day out piloting Samsilli to a brave third in the feature event, the Taree Gold Cup.

Another local connection made their presence felt on the first day of the carnival last Friday. Natural Grey, prepared by veteran Cessnock trainer Robert Davies returned to the winner’s list to claim the class one 100 metres dash after being well paced throughout with four kilogram claiming apprentice Melinda Graham on board.

It was the mare’s second win from 14 starts and would have been well-received by the local Cessnock area people who are among the connections.

Thompson then stepped up in the following race with a strong win on the Todd Howlett-trained Perfectly Aligned who has now put together two on the trot.