Hotham Cup is the best of the rest

NEW South Wales has the Everest and Ballarat has the Hotham.

No two races could be further apart in prizemoney, class or ability, but with the second running of the Hotham, the enthusiasm for the race is starting to build with owners all over Australia.

The Everest boasts $10m purse and Group 1 status whereas the Hotham is a maiden’s maiden for, as one punter pointed out, “Horses that can’t get out of their own way.”

On Friday at the Ballarat Turf Club the second running of the Hotham was designed to give one horse at least one win in their career.

Offering overall prizemoney of $70,000, with a first 1st prize $30,000 and a trophy that came with bragging rights.

This year the search was on by a small syndicate with a sense of humour to find a horse with the right credentials – one that hadn’t won a race. It meant the group could have another tilt at the Hotham, having run out of a place in the race last year, and as leader of the group, Ashlee Hobbs said, “Make amends.”

And they did, with Henry’s Affair taking out the second Hotham Cup.

“Today we had the right horse in the right slow race,” Ms Hobbs said.

“I was on the internet every day looking up horses for sale that might suit this race. We found him through Bloodstock Auctions on the net in Queensland, when we finally settle on Henry’s Affair, we bought him and we arranged to have the horse shipped to Swan Hill to be trained up.”

Nathan Hobson, Ashlee’s brother, trained the five-year old gelding to perfection and the horse looked a treat on the day and performed accordingly.

“There was no pressure in the race and no hype amongst the jockeys we thought it was just another round. It is great to have such a race as this for the owners, because they love their horses and they keep them going for as long as they can, these horses ordinarily can’t win a race but they are always knocking on the door,” jockey Chelsea MacFarlane said.

“Coming up the straight he started to stop, I had to work hard to keep urging him on, I was so glad that he kept going in the end, he did a real good job to win.”

That’s how this race is summed up, slow horses that owners love and like to keep racing, it isn’t the Everest or anything like it.

Yet the Ballarat Hotham is gaining momentum and could well headline the race card at the next year’s meeting and draw a large crowd.