The Carpenter puts on demolition job in Gympie Cup

By Jordan Gerrans

It is not everyday you win a big Cup race by almost 14 lengths.

So, Sunday afternoon up on the sand at Gympie was an occasion to savour for Oakey horseman Terry Hall.

Hall’s galloper – The Carpenter – has become a sand specialist of late and displayed all those traits in the 2022 Gympie Cup, bolting in by 13.8 lengths in a devastating performance in the $20,000 event.

And, for a trainer in Hall, who just has 13 victories to his name across his career, the triumph was a memorable day in his time in the industry.

Ridden by experienced hoop Kelly Gates from barrier three, The Carpenter got going in the middle stages of the 1600 metre Cup race to build a healthy lead and the son of Rothesay never looked like being headed again.

The Gympie Cup for this year adds to the Spring Cup the middle-distance galloper claimed last month at the track. 

He won the Spring Cup by almost five lengths under the urgings of legend hoop Cyril Small.

The 46-year-old Hall now has Roma Cup plans with the sand loving Cup runner.

He is prepared on Oakey’s sand surface.

“It was good, I was very happy with him,” Hall said.

“The Gympie Cup would be one of the biggest wins of my training career so far, absolutely.

“The horse always seems to go well on the sand, he went up there last time to Gympie and nearly broke the track record.

“He seems to grow an extra leg on the sand, his two runs out at Roma have been outstanding as well.

“He is a provincial level horse.”

The Roma Cup will be run as a Country Cups Challenge qualifier in the middle of next month over 1640 metres.

Former jockey Hall has trained a small team of gallopers on the Darling Downs since he prepared his first winner back in 2003.

He has a handful in work as well as doing some breaking in and pre-training.

Hall still rides all of his own track work at Oakey after getting too heavy as a jockey many years ago.

The hobby trainer learnt under the guidance of bush icon Charlie Prow in Blackall, completing his apprenticeship with the revered horseman.

He got going in 1992 and would ride in the areas around Blackall and Barcaldine for around five years – being the leading apprentice and senior jockey for a period of time - before weight became too much of a concern.

“If you are working around horseman like Charlie, then if you can’t learn something of them, then there is something wrong with you,” he said.

Hall also spent time working for Gary Clarke in Barcaldine, who has gone on to become the champion trainer of the Northern Territory in recent years.

He spent time away from the horses after finishing up as a rider but eventually made his way back to the industry to start training.

Of Hall’s 13 career victories as a trainer, half a dozen of those have come with The Carpenter.

The six-year-old chestnut only transferred to his yard in early August of last year.

With the gelding thriving on the sand, the upcoming Roma Cup is an obvious target, with the feature event worth $45,000 this year.

“He has had two runs on the Roma track and my next goal will be the Roma Cup for him,” Hall said.

“He has won other races for me at Toowoomba and Warwick that were not on the sand and he ran a really good race behind The Ritz at Ipswich one day, that to me showed he had something there, even though he only ran fifth at big odds.

“I think I have got on top of him now.”

Across the five event non-TAB program from Gympie on Saturday, hoop Gates collected a winning double in the saddle, headlined by the Cup on The Carpenter.

Sunshine Coast-based trainer Trevor Thomas also claimed a winning double across the card.