Gough and Mumford claim first Cairns Cup

By Glenn Davis

The old firm of Brisbane trainer Lindsay Gough and owner Bill Mumford claimed their first Cairns Cup with imported stayer Mahagoni at Cannon Park on Saturday.

Ridden by Georgina Cartwright, Mahagoni lived up to his strong fourth in the Mackay Cup two weeks ago, to down the Georgie Holt-trained Magic Conqueror by almost two lengths.

Mumford has raced horses for many years and is best known to Queenslanders as the owner of Consular who he bought for $20,000 as a tried horse in Victoria. 

Consular was trained at Eagle Farm by Bill Baker and went on to earn more than $1 million in prize money with 16 wins and 14 placings from 85 starts.

Mahagoni came to Australia two years ago after Sydney trainer David Payne bought him in the United Kingdom.

Gough and Mumford have been regular visitors to North Queensland each year and shared in their biggest with Wren’s Day in the Cleveland Bay Handicap at Townsville two years ago.

Gough, who recently became a father for the second time, and Mumford have been close friends for more than two decades.

Mumford bought Mahagoni for $80,000 at an online auction after he managed two wins in Sydney and races the six-year-old with close friend Rob Ross.

“Billy can find a horse, that’s for sure,” Gough said.

“We’ve won a Cleveland Bay, a Mackay Newmarket and a Cairns Amateur Sprint together but this is our first winner in a staying race in the north.”

Gough now plans to head to the Cairns Amateur Cup on September 14 with Mahagoni.

Cartwright later made it a feature double winning the Daintree Guineas aboard the Ricky Vale-trained Pipistrelle.

Starting as a heavily backed favourite, Pipistrelle was with the tail enders approaching the home turn before hauling in the early leaders to win decisively.

Pipistrelle was formerly trained by James Cummings in Sydney and is now unbeaten in two Queensland starts.

Meanwhile, veteran trainer Roy Chillemi claimed another feature race in his star-studded career with Missile Thunder in the Lightning Handicap.

Missile Thunder, ridden by Nathan Thomas, powered home to finish over the top of the Les Gordy-trained Demon Award.

The 74-year-old Chillemi is in the twilight of his training career and has won a host of North Queensland features including almost 40 premierships at Cairns and Townsville as well as being the leading provincial trainer in Queensland on five occasions.