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Hometown Collarenebri Cup beckons for Kelly Smith – hold the Viagra

PETER Sinclair was at his quick-witted best.

“If Kelly Smith wins the Collarenenbri Cup with Cool Rules on Saturday, he’ll be strutting around like he’s taken six Viagra tablets.”

The Moree trainer summed it up perfectly when assessing the Joe and Jane Willis Memorial Collarenebri Cup – a race named in honour of two of bush racing’s greatest ambassadors.

And it’s a race that Collarenebri local Kelly Smith – one of Sinclair’s best mates – would love to win.

Smith won the Collarenebri Cup as a jockey on Lunar Landing back in 1972.

Now, he reckons, it’s his turn to win it as a trainer.

He went close five years ago when Mr Braveheart finished third – beaten a little more than two lengths – behind Platinum Touch and Relentless Lad.

Smith has won a few supporting races over the years and now this year with new stable acquisition Cool Rule, his hometown cup beckons.

Smith and his wife Carol leased Cool Rules from Moree’s Our Next New Horse Syndicate with the Collarenebri Cup a chief objective.

And if Cool Rules’s last-start third at Moree is any guide, the old black gelding with a sway back will take a power of beating.

Cool Rules was never on the track at Moree but raced handy to the leaders before charging late to finish a neck and a short-half-head third behind Blinkin’ Fast and Mellore.

“It was a great run at Moree,” Smith said.

“I honestly thought he’d had enough at the 200m and was ready to give up, but he just kept coming – he really hit the line.

“And he looks really good at the moment – his coat is shining and he’s very happy within himself,” he said.

Cool Rules has overcome illness to return to the track.

Earlier this year the gelding was diagnosed with anhidrosis, a debilitating condition that takes away a horse’s natural ability to sweat.

But with special treatment and a good rest, Cool Rules has returned fighting fit and enjoying his new home at Collarenebri.

“He’s settled in perfectly out here – it’s as if he knows where home is,” Smith smiled.

Smith has also overcome serious illness.

In 2007 he suffered a minor accident while working with sheep at his Collarenebri feedlot.

Later that day Smith was in considerable pain, and a subsequent visit to the local doctor turned into a life-threatening – and life-changing – journey of despair, hope and inspiration.

“I was weighing some sheep at the little feedlot I’ve got and one pulled me back on to an iron peg which caught me on the left side in the chest,” Smith said.

“That afternoon when I cooled down I still felt a fair bit of pain; I’d had a bit of a bleed inside apparently.

“I went to the hospital and our local doctor, Jolmer Smit, did an X-ray and found something on my lung, so they flew me straight to Dubbo and did a biopsy,” he said.

Smith’s biopsy on August 1 – ironically the horses’ birthday – delivered the worst possible news.

“I was diagnosed with lung cancer and told if I wasn’t operated on straight away I wouldn’t live 12 months,” Smith said.

Smith underwent surgery at Strathfield Private Hospital in Sydney, where the top-left lobe of his left lung was removed.

After extensive chemotherapy he emerged a rare breed among cancer sufferers – a survivor.

“I’ve just been very, very lucky . . . very lucky,” Smith said.

The cancer journey inspired Smith to organise the “Collarenebri Charity Bike Ride”, a trek from Mungindi to Collarenebri that raised more than $70,000 for the Royal Flying Doctors, Can-Assist and the Cancer Council.

“That was a very special day. There was a lot of tears; it was very, very emotional,” Smith said.

Saturday’s feature 1400m Collarenebri Cup is named in honour of Joe and Jane Willis.

Joe, a horse trainer most of his adult life, was 84 years of age and Jane four years his junior and they died within eight days of each other – the longest they’d ever been apart in more than 60 years.

Joe and Jane were what bush racing is all about – they defined the game.

They grew up at Collarenebri on the dusty, drought-ridden black-soil plains of western NSW, raising sheep and cattle on their property, Norma.

Making a living from livestock was a life-long gamble – training racehorses was an even bigger one – but during the good times as well as the bad, there was always a galloper just a hay-bale away.

Joe trained his first winner in 1957 when Sideo raced clear to win a maiden handicap at Walgett and a few years later he and Jane were dragged along for the ride of their life when bush marvel Shar showed his rivals the method to travel – time and time again.

Shar went on to win 32 races, including a host of bush cups across New South Wales.

In 1964 champion hoop Skeeter Kelly guided Shar to an all-the-way win in the Scone Cup, beating Bird of Fashion and Red Rock by a widening three lengths.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Willdell assumed Shar’s mantel, charging his way around NSW racetracks to win 31 races – most of them cups, including Joe and Jane’s hometown cup.

A few years after Willdell retired, Welsh Edition arrived from strictly nowhere.

The gelding went on to win 13 races from 47 starts, including the Narrabri, Moree and Barraba Cups in 2002 and the Nyngan and Collarenebri Cups in 2004.

Saturday’s cup meeting has drawn 53 final acceptances, with seven entered for the Collarenebri Cup.

Cool Rules has drawn perfectly in gate two and will be ridden by two-kilo claiming apprentice Chris Williams, bringing his weight down to 57kg.

“He’s finally drawn a barrier so hopefully he’ll be sitting second or third behind the leaders and keeping clear of all the dust,” Smith said.

“He loves the dirt tracks – he proved that last year out at Louth and Carinda when he won,” he said.

Words: Bill Poulos

Image: Sarsfield Thoroughbreds