Trainer pulls the Wright rein for Rogue Runner's Sunday Picnic
Jockey Maddison Wright has been booked since March for the Rodney Robb-trained Rogue Runner in Sunday's NSW Racing Showcase Picnic Championships (1400m) at Dubbo.
That’s six months of planning. It shows what a significant fixture this race has become on the calendar for local trainers and owners.
Wright won the inaugural running of the $50,000 feature on Security Code back in 2017 and Wright is on the race favourite this year.
“I had won a lot of races on Security Code before that and it was great to win the first one. All of the owners that day had a ball, they had special T-shirts made up with Rodney’s colours,” Wright recalls.
Robb has won two of three runnings of the race, also winning in 2018 with Austin, before the Mark Ward-trained Gadfly won it last year.
“The owner had always set Rogue Runner for this race and I just stick with Rodney; he gives me 95 per cent of my rides at the picnics,” said Wright, who works in real estate during the week.
“The 1400m is the only question mark but I think he’ll get it, and so does Rodney.”
The lightly raced gelding has run over 1400m in the past but it was when he was trained by John Thompson with the son of Casino Prince running third at Newcastle.
Rogue Runner, arguably in career-best form after a Mudgee win and a third behind Sneak Preview, and Wright have already tasted success together in the past too.
“I remember when I won on him at Bedgerabong; Rodney gave me the instructions to get in the barriers, grab a lot of mane and hold on, and that’s exactly what I did. He was too good for them there,” she said.
Rogue Runner is exceptionally well placed under the set-weight conditions of the race given his benchmark rating of 69.
The Kim Waugh-trained White Boots, meanwhile, looks equally well placed to take out the day’s feature, the $100,000 Dubbo Gold Cup (1600m).