Wieland and Edwards combine for Cooktown Cup triumph

By Glenn Davis

Cairns trainer Fred Wieland has claimed his second Cooktown Cup with former Victorian galloper Healing Game.

Ridden by apprentice Jenna Edwards, Healing Game followed up from his Trainers Cup win at Innisfail last month with an easy all-the-way win in the 1760 metre feature.

It was Healing Game’s third win from 15 starts for Wieland since being moved on from the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace stable in Melbourne.

Wieland has been training more than 30 years and claimed his maiden Cooktown Cup with Red Savage in 2001.

Meanwhile, talented Tolga sprinter Phantom Spirit scored in the Country Stampede qualifier at Cooktown on Saturday but won’t be making the trip south for next month’s Final at Doomben.

Phantom Spirit, ridden by in-form jockey Lacey Morrison, stretched his winning sequence to four with a near half-length win over the John Manzelmann-trained Gossip Torque.

Most of the six-year-old's owners made the trip to Cooktown to watch their bargain buy register his eighth win in 32 starts.

“He was a cheap buy and only cost his owners about $6,000,” Phantom Spirit's trainer Sharlee Hoffman said.

“We had a brief chat about trying to qualify him for Brisbane. 

“The owners are very good and they’re content to just keep racing him up this way.”

One of the qualifying conditions for Country Stampede Finalists at Doomben on December 2 is for starters to have competed in five country race meetings in the past 12 months.

Hoffman travelled to Brisbane with her former handy stayer Maquereau when the gelding finished fifth in the Country Cups Challenge Final in 2020.

Since starting her training career about 10 years ago, Hoffman has made a huge impact in North Queensland.

A mother of two and the holder of an agriculture degree in horse management, Hoffman originally hailed from the NSW coastal town of Macksville before she moved north to muster on cattle stations in the Gulf country.

After moving to the state’s Far North, she worked alongside veteran Tolga trainer Roy Chillemi while she also rode work for trainers Terry Crossland, Glen Baker, Greg Wehlow and Janel Ryan.