09 July 2015
Three year old gelding Rich Virgin is no stranger to feature races. The son of Always a Virgin won the 2014 Leeton Breeders Plate when trained by part owner Ben Matthews and connections are hoping he can win this Saturday night’s Pepper Tree Farm NSW Breeders Challenge Blue final at Tabcorp Park Menangle.
The five time winner was transferred to Pheasants Nest trainer Peter Rixon after the Bathurst Gold Chalice consolation with a Breeders Challenge campaign in mind.
“Peter (Rixon) is one of the better trainers around Sydney and it was always going to be difficult for me to travel up from Leeton to Sydney for the Breeders Challenge series so the other owners and I decided to send the horse to him on a full time basis,” Ben Matthews said.
“I work full time for Water NSW so it gets hard for me to get away and unfortunately I don’t think any of Rich Virgin’s owners will be able to get to Menangle this Saturday night either so after having all of us there on Breeders Challenge final day he will go around without a support team this weekend.”
Matthews continues to enjoy training horses on a part time basis and is working with two horses that were purchased earlier this year.
“We bought two more out of the sales, they’re into their second preparation and they run along alright, one of them is owned in the same interest as Rich Virgin.”
“I had a few mates and we bought a claimer called Streetem, he was trained by my brother Todd and raced around in Victoria but he got claimed so we went to the Bathurst sales and purchased Rich Virgin.
“I broke him in and it didn’t take him long to put it altogether, he always had ability so that’s why I targeted the Breeders Plate last year.”
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Matthews after he was affected by the 2012 fire that ripped through the stables at the Leeton showground killing five horses.
“I was very fortunate that I didn’t lose any horses in the fire unlike a couple of the other trainers but I did lose some gear and it knocked me around a bit.
“This horse probably came along at the right time after that and it has been a good ride with him.”
The name Rich Virgin was selected for the gelding after prospective names were put into a hat.
“His breeding is Always a Virgin out of Lignum Twister but we each got to put a few suggestions in a hat and then we drew out six names and they were the ones we put down on his papers when we registered him.”
With $30,000 to the winner on Saturday night, the gelding could be well named.
“We only paid $6,700 for him and he has already won more than $50,000 so if he does win on Saturday night it would be a big celebration.”
Greg Hayes
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