ZAMEX looked like he’d lasted but Future Event arrived late as today’s $38,000 Riverview Hotel Murwillumbah Cup (1530m) finished in a dead heat.
Both “winning” trainers thought they had won.
Murwillumbah trainer Matt Dunn felt Zamex might have lasted to win him his second home town Cup while Gold Coast trainer John Zielke thought his four-year-old gelding had surged successfully to snare his first Murwillumbah Cup.
“What a peach of a ride,” John Zielke said moments after watching a slow motion replay he thought showed Future Event winning by virtue of him being on the outside.
“Magic,” he said of Michael Hellyer’s ride.
“I thought we’d won it.”
He had, just that he had to share what was a historic moment.
“We’ve never had a dead heat in the Cup before,” Tweed River Jockey Club chairman Bernie Quinn confirmed.
Matt Dunn was as stunned as anyone.
At one stage he though his second Cup Mystical Renegade had “it won at the 300m”.
Then Zamex appeared and appeared he might have held on.
“He was unlucky in the Coffs Cup,” Matt Dunn said.
“He’s been an unlucky horse,” he said of a five-year-old gelding son of Cheval De Troy, who has also won two Highway Handicaps in Sydney.
“Just the way he races.”
Zamex is Dunn’s second Cup winner after he won with Dream Speed for former Brisbane racecaller Steve Hawkins.
He said both Zamex and Mystical Renegade will now head to Ballina for the September 6 Ballina Cup.
2018 Cup day also held special attention for former club secretary Brian Charman.
The former Tweed River Jockey Club committeeman and secretary was honoured with life membership and having a new decking area named after him.
Long serving club chairman, Bernie Quinn, said Charman’s honour was richly deserved.
“Totally,” Quinn said.
“He was on the board for 13 and half years and then sec-manager for three years. And he’s doing a great job in Sydney too.”
Brian Charman is now the CEO Country Racing NSW and enjoying the many challenges that entails as well.
An accountant by trade he decided for a change in life when he applied for the secretary manager job about four years ago.
“I fell in love with it,” he said of the job and racing.
“Thoroughly enjoyed my time here.”
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