Clearly Innocent Rules The Country Championships

Despite a setback just 24 hours earlier, Clearly Innocent strode away with the $400,000 Country Championships Final at Royal Randwick on Day 1 of The Championships.

The Greg Bennett-trained  four-year-old was in doubt on the Friday before the race after his trainer reported to stewards that Clearly Innocent was being monitored for stone bruises to it’s off fore hoof.
His stablemate, and fellow Country Championships runner, All Summer Long had the same setback and was withdrawn from the race the day before.

But Clearly Innocent’s was passed fit to start on Saturday morning and with Tommy Berry in the saddle was too classy for the big field, defeating Pera Pera by 2.5 lengths with Ever So Natural in third.

Berry decided to use gate one to his advantage rather than the perceived disadvantage it was with the risk of being bustled up on the fence.

And it worked a treat with Berry patiently waiting for a run at the rear of the field before pushing Clearly Innocent up the rail.

“Greg asked me before the race what I was going to do and I told him ‘you’re probably not going to like this but I’m going to come up the fence’,” Berry said.

“Greg told me he wouldn’t be sending the horse to Sydney unless he was 100 per cent and he called me at 6.30am this morning and told me he was 100 per cent.

“It was a great training performance.”



Clearly Innocent, by Not A Single Doubt out of No Penalty, wasn’t yet at his peak according to Bennett.
“Whoever owns that broodmare [No Penalty] should never get rid of her,” Bennett said.

“This horse is just getting better and better.

“We had our setback during the week but it’s good to be here now.

“To have so many country horses and country people here today has showed what a great initiative this series has been.

“Hopefully I can come back with another one next year.”

Bruce Neil of Cressfield Stud – owners of the horse – praised the Country Championships, saying it brought the whole industry together in NSW.

“This series has added a huge amount of interest all over the state,” he said.

“There’s been a lot of drama during the past 24 hours but that’s racing and it was a happy ending.”



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