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MUSGROVE’S LENGTHY RAWILLER CONNECTION

22/05/2023

CAMPBELL Rawiller’s win in the Australian Hurdle at Sandown Lakeside on Sunday with Circle The Sun continued a unique association for his family with master jumps trainer Eric Musgrove.

Musgrove pointed out that Campbell’s grandfather Keith had one ride for him for one win in the early 1980s. His grandson Campbell, who is in his first season as a jumps jockey has ridden for Musgrove on four occasions and can boast a perfect record of three wins from four rides for him.

“When I was first getting into the caper Campbell’s grandfather had one ride for one win,” Musgrove said.

Musgrove chalked up his fourth win in the Australian Hurdle with Circle The Sun’s victory at Sandown Lakeside on Sunday. This followed wins with Gobsgtopper (2020), Our Aristocrat (2011) and Karasi (2004).

Rawiller has burst on to the scene as a jumps rider this year and has now won six races from 14 rides.

Musgrove said Circle The Sun was his best jumps prospect since his 2020 Australian Hurdle winner Gobstopper.

Musgrove purchased Circle The Sun from an Inglis Digital Online auction.

He said he rang his Perth trainer Adam Durrant when he spotted he was up for sale and he told him he was limited on the flat but could stay. Durrant stayed in the ownership of the five-year-old.

“He said he should be ideal for you. He’s immature and with time he would develop into a nice stayer,” he said.

Musgrove will set Circle The Sun for the Grand National Hurdle.

“For his first season he’s going very well. We educated him last season but didn’t run him over the jumps as we thought we’d wait for this season. He’s been a bit immature but he’s gradually getting better all the time and with his win yesterday he could be a serious horse,” he said.

“He’s a nice horse. We’ll keep progressing along quietly and if all goes well he’ll go to the Grand National Hurdle but if he has any setbacks he won’t.”

“He’s been perfectly ridden by the boy who lets him freewheel along. He rates the horse very well.”

Musgrove said Rawiller’s best attribute so early in his career was his ability to judge the pace and to get a horse to travel without putting any pressure on them.

“He’s been well mentored by his Dad, Nash and his grandfather Keith as well as Steve Pateman.”

“He needs to improve on his jumping which will come with experience.”

Rawiller, who also won the BM120 on Teofilo Star for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott said on RSN on Monday morning that it was an amazing day.

“Both horses found a lovely rhythm. The key with both horses was that we got it quite nicely in front and they settled lovely. It was unbelievable how great they both were to the line,” Rawiller said.

Rawiller said he had ridden six winners and Circle The Sun provided three of them and Tolemac two wins.

The other feature event, the Australian Steeplechase, also gave Symon Wilde his fourth win in the event when Tolemac careered away to win it under the riding of Will Gordon.

It gave Wilde consecutive wins in the Australian Steeplechase as he was successful last year with Britannicus and his fourth in total as he also trained Megapixel with his father Bill to win the race in 2012 and also Gold Medals in 2017.

Wilde said on Racing.Com that Tolemac was a horse with a bright future and everything had fallen into place for him in the Australian Steeplechase.

“The track is a lot wetter than what I thought it would be and he’s really good on soft ground. He also had no weight and Will put him into the race at the right time. With the slow tempo, no weight, and a softer track it worked out well,” Wilde said.

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