I Told You shapes well for NSW Bred Final

For the past decade Forbes-based owner-breeders Phil and Denise Thurston have had a great deal of success combining with prominent Goulburn harness racing horseman Brad Hewitt.

Since retiring to their purpose-built property, the Thurstons have accumulated a bevy of well-bred broodmares, many of which have come from New Zealand, initially to race and then join the breeding barn.

And it appears that Phil and Denise have struck gold again with I Told You, a filly they bred themselves from Trilight Brigade, which they raced with success.

By highly-successful sire Captaintreacherous, I Told You made a mess of her rivals a fortnight ago in a heat of the NSW Bred series, the two-year-old racing clear to win by 23 metres in a fast 1:58.7 mile rate.

Tomorrow night (Aug. 5), the filly contests the $30,000 final at Tabcorp Park Menangle and after drawing gate two, will likely start favourite for the feature event.

She was under the care of Phil himself for the Parkes heat win but has since been transferred to Hewitt’s stable.

Hewitt will drive I Told You in the final and explained that he has been impressed with what he had seen of the youngster.

“She is a lovely well put together filly with a lot of natural talent,” said Hewitt.

“Phil and Denise have well-bred stock and we have had plenty of luck together over the years, I hope that it can continue with I Told You.

“It can be daunting for horses when having their first start at Menangle and can sometimes take a bit of getting used to.

“But this being a two-year-old series where all the runners are coming from different areas, they all are in the same boat, so I do expect her to go very close to winning.”

This weekend of racing begins this afternoon at Wagga followed by meetings at Newcastle and Parkes tonight.

The Newcastle club attracted huge nominations, extending its program to 10 races with capacity fields.

Tamworth-based driver Caitlin McElhinney is travelling down there for seven drives, most of which are solid in the market.

McElhinney is driving in career-best form and is in demand from trainers keen to capitalise on her concession claim.

Four of her drives are for Central Coast trainer Roy Roots Jnr tonight, however her best winning chance looks to be with Redfox Raider for Tom Ison in the opening race.

For complete Newcastle race entries, click here.

by Michael Dumesny, for HRNSW