Caption: WINNERS: Eddie Kingswell and trainer Mark Gatt with Stanley Road after winning the 2021 Association Cup.
Group 1 Golden Easter Egg (520m)
Best 80 nominated.
Heats March 26. Semis April 2. Final April 9.
$250,000 to the winner.
Group 1 Association Cup (720m)
Best nominated.
Heats April 2. Final April 9.
$75,000 to the winner.
Group 3 New Sensation (520m)
Special qualifications.
Heats March 30. Final April 9.
$25,000 to the winner.
Group 3 The Ambrosoli (520m)
3rd-4th from Egg semis.
April 9.
$25,000 to the winner.
Group 3 Magic Maiden (520m)
Heats March 23. Semis March 30. Final April 9.
$25,000 to the winner.
Listed Ultra Sense (520m)
5th Grade
Heats April 2. Final April 9.
$15,000 to the winner.
By DAVID BRASCH
WHEN the dust had settled at the end of the 2021 Golden Easter Egg carnival, glory had been bestowed upon some greats, boom youngsters were set on a career path to history, and tears were shed for legends of the industry achieving success in trying times.
The 2021 Egg Carnival was no different to almost all others.
Tommy Shelby stampeded his greatness with his win in the Group 1 Egg, Bandit Ned landed the Group 3 Magic Maiden and Jungle Deuce looked highly promising winning the Group 3 New Sensation.
Ned, of course, would soon go on to a Nowra track record and victory in the Vic Peters and finals berths in the Topgun and Paws of Thunder.
Jungle Deuce lived up to his promise by winning the Paws and Gold Bullion, the Flying Amy Classic, Golden Sands and also making the final of the Topgun and the much-hyped The Phoenix.
Golden Easter Egg night, a ‘night of nights’ where two Group 1s, three Group 3s and a Listed event are on show, should have such an encore.
But, Easter Egg night 2021 is best remembered for now 72-year-old Eddie Kingswell making it to Wentworth Park despite starting cancer treatment a few days later, just to see one of the few dogs he has left in training.
That dog, Stanley Road, came from a seemingly hopeless position to win the Group 1 Association Cup and give back to Eddie Kingswell a spark of life.
Such moments are what racing is all about.
And it has set in motion as well a possible 2022 repeat of the heart-warming story.
Both Eddie Kingswell and Stanley Road’s trainer Mark Gatt have the star-studded stayer on target for a repeat tilt at the Group 1 Association Cup, the race that filled eyes with tears last year.
“I’m still having treatment for the brain cancer,” Eddie told Chase Newspaper.
“Last year, my doctor gave me no hope. But then he decided to operate on my head, and with medication the effects have started to ease.
“It will get me in the end.”
Eddie said this time last year he’d been ‘feeling crook off and on’. The medicos found a ‘bad growth’.
“This sort of thing is all new to me,” he said. “I love going racing with my trainers, being hands on as much as I can.
“I’ve got the greyhound training property and that is where Mark (Gatt) is based with his team. Mark and I have been a team since he started out on his own professionally.
“I remember him when he was a shy young kid. He knows his dogs.”
Eddie remembers Association Cup night 2021 like it was yesterday.
He also knows the reaction of friends, mates, and old acquaintances who are aware of his cancer battle.
“I go to the dogs these days, when I can, and people don’t know what to say to me,” he said. “So, they don’t say anything.”
That Association Cup victory was monumental.
“I was crook and didn’t want to come out to the track,” he said. “But it is one of the best runs I’ve ever seen. He shouldn’t have won from where he was in the run. But he did.”
Eddie Kingswell has always lived by his mantra of buying the best, breeding from the best and it has stood him in good stead.
He and Mark have shared glory with such greats as Oaks Road, Boyce Road and Stanley Road.
“We are not just like owner and trainer,” said Eddie. “It’s closer than that.”
As for the 2022 version of the Association Cup, he and Mark are heading down that track again.
“He’s got a bit sick of going around Wentworth Park and getting beaten up,” said Mark.
“But how do we not put him into a race like the Association Cup again this year.”
Eddie sits at home these days and watches racing live on TV.
Unless one of those few dogs he still has in racing are running.
He remembers like yesterday how he came to get Stanley Road.
He raced his dam Piper Road.
“She had three starts for three wins but turned her head,” he said. “I told Mark she was not the sort of bitch I wanted to breed with.
“Andy Lord initially took her over but then gave her to someone else to breed with and I got a pup from the litter. This is him.”
Mark Gatt reared the pup, a giant of distance racing even though he is just 29 kilos, and gave him three initial starts.
“He didn’t do much, but to Mark’s credit he said he would make a stayer and we decided to give him four months in the paddock,” said Eddie.
“Mark kept stepping him up in distance and the better he went.”
Stanley Road, Eddie and Mark have also won the Group 1 Fanta Bale Super Stayers, Group 2 Summer Distance Plate, Group 3 Xmas Cheer.
They have finished second in the Group 1 Zoom Top, Group 1 Sandown Cup, and third in another Summer Distance Plate and Xmas Cheer. And finals berths include the Group 1 Topgun Stayers, Group 2 Sydney Cup, Group 3 WPk Gold Cup and the Listed Newcastle Cup.
