21/04/2026
Hear Col’s racing wrap up from our Cup Day.
Taking an outstanding record in to the race, the 4 year old gelding Sarrismo was a stylish winner of the $75,000 Tamburlaine Wines “Big Dance Eligibility” Orange Gold Cup (1600 metres) in front of a big crowd at Towac Park.
From the high profile Tom Charlton stable at Randwick, Sarrismo, prior to Orange , had won successive races at Warwick Farm and Doomben and had an overall record of 4 wins and 4 placings from 8 starts.
Given a charmed run behind the leaders by Sydney jockey Andrew Adkins, Sarrismo ($2.50 favourite) broke clear in the straight and won by over 2 lengths from Green Run (Jacob Stiff, $12) and Tenderize (Mikayla Weir, $12).
Trained at Dubbo by Dar Lunn, Green Run has been unlucky to finish second over the past week to horses from two of the biggest city stables in NSW, the Bjorn Baker trained Perfumist in the Wellington Cup and the Tom Charlton trained Sarrismo at Orange.
Green Run and the Alison Smith, locally trained How’s It Kev were the only central west gallopers in the Orange Cup with the veteran How’s It Kev finishing an admirable 4th in the strong field.
In the following race, the last of the Orange season, there was even louder cheering when the Alison Smith trained 7 year old mare Brief Statement won the 1000 metres Complete REO Benchmark 58 Showcase Handicap.
Very well ridden by Dubbo apprentice Jacob Stiff, Brief Statement ($6) overhauled Brogans Creek (Nick Heywood, $3.90) to win by a half length with the Peter Cornish, Orange trained Divine Conclusion (Winona Costin,$26) a close third.
Since the first start when second to War Heart at Narromine in August 2021, Brief Statement has been a popular and highly consistent galloper with the consistency evident from the early part of the career when from the first 12 starts Brief Statement had 3 wins and 7 placings.
At the second start, Brief Statement finished third at Dubbo with the winner Democracy Manifest going on to win the G2 Ajax Stakes at Randwick and the G3 Cameron Handicap at Newcastle and over $1 million prizemoney.
Appropriately, the first win, at the third start for Brief Statement, came in September 2021 in a Maiden Handicap on the home track at Orange when ridden by Ashley Morgan and beating I’ll Tell You Miss and Toongi Bound.
Jockeys to win on Brief Statement have been Ashley Morgan, Tony Cavallo, Will Stanley (2), Jordan Quince and Jacob Stiff.
Overall, the record for Brief Statement is 6 wins and 18 placings from 48 starts and over $200,000 prizemoney which is a credit to trainer Alison Smith for keeping the mare racing so consistently over a lengthy career.
Other central west winners on Cup day at Orange were the Janelle Galea, Dubbo trained Frankie’s Shout (Leeshelle Small, $2.90), the Toby Pracey, Mudgee trained Just Joan (Clayton Gallagher, $4.80) and A Boy Named Soo (Clayton Gallagher, $5) trained at Mudgee by David Smith.
Thanks to a small and hard working committee, Orange has now completed a very successful season with racing after the traditional winter break scheduled to resume on Thursday 8th October.
Meanwhile, racing at Bathurst and Nyngan on ANZAC Day and Narromine on Sunday.
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Colin Hodges.
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