PROMINENT Collingullie breeder-owner Noel Penfold has made the 'hard decision' to find a new home for Rocket Tiger.
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Penfold has taken Rocket Tiger from Wagga trainer Scott Spackman and sent him to Ben Brisbourne at Wangaratta.
Rocket Tiger became the first Wagga horse to run in a Golden Slipper back in 2021 on the back of a phenomenal two-year-old campaign.
He ran 10th in the $3.5 million feature before injury struck and he was never able to reach the same heights again.
Rocket Tiger won last year's Wagga Town Plate Prelude and went on to run fifth behind Mnementh in the feature sprint. He also ran third at Caulfield first-up last preparation and was only beaten six lengths in the group two Gilgai Stakes at his next start.
But after failing to see out 1400m when finishing ninth in the SDRA Country Championships Qualifier earlier this month, Penfold believes the time is right for a change.
"We think he's better the Melbourne way and just getting him a bit closer," Penfold said.
"The five or six hours travel to Melbourne is just too hard, I feel. Ben's a couple of hours away, if you go to someone in Melbourne they're probably an hour away.
"My good mate Neville Murdoch has been doing a fair bit with Ben and we had a chat and I felt pretty comfortable so I decided to go there."
Rocket Tiger amassed $272,000 in prizemoney during his 21-start career with Spackman. But his country rating of 88 makes him difficult to place and Penfold revealed retirement beckons for the five-year-old should he not fire for Brisbourne.
"It's a very hard decision. A very hard decision to take him off Spacky," Penfold said.
"He did a fantastic job but Spacky actually mentioned it to me a couple of times that we've got to do something else.
"His rating's high, unless we can get him back racing well then I'll probably look at retiring him.
"If he comes back good then there could be plenty more racing in him. The rating system has just made it really hard. The horse has only won three races.
"It's a shame, you get a good horse like this and the rating system pushes him right up. There's a lot worse horses than him that win more than three races.
"Anyway, it's been a great ride and it was a tough decision. We're just going to give this a go and see what happens."
Penfold thanked Spackman for the job he did with Rocket Tiger.
"He's done a fantastic job," he said.
"He was only the second country horse to run in a Golden Slipper, and to run second to Home Affairs in the Silver Slipper and should have won it, who can complain about that?
"These sort of things make it extremely hard but horse racing is not an easy game and you've got to make some decisions at times."
Spackman was disappointed to lose Rocket Tiger to a country stable but said he has nothing but love for the horse.
"It was a hell of a ride," Spackman said.
"It was a sad day to see him leave. The whole family loved the horse."
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ALBURY trainer Ron Stubbs will be hoping to keep his good run going when Bridie's Luck steps out at Randwick on Saturday.
Stubbs has trained eight winners from his last 25 starters and will be looking to improve that strike rate when Bridie's Luck contests the $120,000 TAB Highway Class Three Handicap (1000m) on Saturday.
Bridie's Luck, a last-start winner at Wagga, has drawn the inside gate with Tyler Schiller to ride.
Stubbs also has Bridie's Luck nominated for Wagga on Tuesday as a precautionary measure.
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WAGGA trainers enjoyed a day out at Murrumbidgee Turf Club last Sunday.
Wantabadgery trainer Roger Waters claimed the feature, the $32,000 Tom Patton Cup (1800m) for the second straight year with Lumbar Dream.
Doug Gorrel continued his brilliant form with a race-to-race winning double as Sorry Sunshine ($31) and Our Frankie ($11) got the money.
Chris Hardy was in the winner's list with Sinepia ($2.60), a three-year-old filly who was having just her second start for the stable.
Gary Colvin also got in on the act as Trifecta Ruby ($13) scored a first-up win.
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DOMINANT Wagga trial winner Shadow Flash won't be seen in the Southern District again any time soon.
The Danny Beasley-trained Shadow Flash has been sold to Hong Kong, pending a vet clearance, after winning the Wagga trial by six and a half lengths last Sunday.
The three-year-old Russian Revolution gelding will be trained by Mark Newnham in Hong Kong but under new ownership.
"It was a pretty easy sell because he ticked a lot of boxes," Beasley said.
"He's a promising little horse. He'll do a good job up there."
While that is one horse out of Beasley's stable, he recently was given a Starcraft filly to train from Neville Begg.
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A NEW apprentice jockey has joined the Southern District ranks.
Jayden Barrie has joined Tumut trainer Kerry Weir from Muswellbrook.
He has ridden 20 career winners and claims two kilograms.
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THE Country Championships heats move to Moruya on Sunday for the South East edition.
The South East heat is traditionally one of the strongest heats of the series and this year features the Danny Williams-trained Bandi's Boy among others.
Wagga jockey Danny Beasley will ride the Danielle Seib-trained Sir Ming, who he piloted to victory at Goulburn two starts back.
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WHAT'S ON
GALLOPS
Saturday: Carrathool (non-TAB)
Tuesday: Wagga (TAB)
TROTS
Friday: Wagga (TAB)
Tuesday: Temora (TAB)
DOGS
Friday: Wagga (TAB)
Sunday: Temora (TAB)
Wednesday: Temora (TAB)
