Rocky's Jason Morgan builds his own Media Empire

By Jordan Gerrans

Jason Morgan and Media Empire are the first team to punch their ticket for the Country Stampede Final of 2024 but they still need to tick a few boxes before the big city decider.

The 2024 edition of the popular CS series commenced on Saturday afternoon with the opening heat at Thangool.

The Thangool qualifier doubled as the local Thangool Newmarket with a quality field descending on the Central Queensland town for the race.

It was Rockhampton trainer Morgan and his in-form galloper Media Empire who walked away with the decisive victory and a ticket into the $105,000 Final at Doomben in late November.

The CS Final is restricted to horses that have started in a minimum of five races at country race meetings (either TAB or non-TAB) in Queensland in the last year.

Media Empire’s trip to Thangool was just his third, which followed a recent run at Springsure and another effort at Thangool in June.

Having won the opening heat of the series, time is on Morgan’s side as he can pick off two more country race meetings for his son of Winning Rupert before the big decider in town.

The six-year-old gelding is likely to head to Gladstone later this month and then on to Emerald a few weeks later to finally confirm his place in the CS decider.

“We will get them out of the way as quick as I can then I can come up with a plan of attack into Doomben,” the trainer said.

“We have had our eyes on this race series because his form was not good enough to chase the northern carnival races.

“He had tapered off a little bit as Saturday was his 13^th run of this preparation, he sort of went off a little bit midway through it.

“We were considering tipping him out but we saw this race series and he has turned the corner.

“He is probably equal to the best I have had him since he finished second to Smart Image at Townsville in July of last year.

“We ended up targeting this series when we realised he was not up to those bigger carnival races.”

Ridden by Tasha Chambers, Media Empire defeated a field of gallopers that would not be out of place on a provincial program at Mackay and Rockhampton, including the classy Tiger Legend, Dragon’s Snip and Janean.

Media Empire had finished inside the top four in each of his four trips to the races before Thangool’s CS qualifier, which gave Morgan a level of confidence that he would be competitive against the top field.

“We expected a forward showing from him,” Morgan said.

“He had been running well at his last few starts at the provincials, the TAB meetings. It was a pretty strong race on Saturday but I still expected him to run very well.

“There was a lot of good horses in the race at Thangool on Saturday and a lot of them would have started close to favourite in a race at Rocky.

“I was going there confident but knowing we needed a bit of luck.”

As a young fella in the 1980s and 90s, Morgan was a top harness driver in Rockhampton – claiming three premierships and driving over 400 winners – with his father Barry training.

When the pacers stopped being run in the Beef Capital of Australia, Morgan eventually turned to training gallopers, as well as working as an assistant handicapper and cadet steward at the local club.

Harness racing followers would remember Morgan being active on the South East Queensland scene up until 2015 when he had his last drive of his career.

Having now qualified a galloper for a city race back in the big smoke, the 56-year-old is looking forward to getting back to metro Saturday racing.

“There is a bit of excitement to take one back down there and race on a metropolitan day,” he said.

“The fact that we are racing against horses that we race week in, week out for the good money is really exciting.

“I think the horse will be up to the level of the Final and we are keen to get there.”

Morgan prepares a team of four, including Doubting Eye who went around at Mackay on Tuesday, as well as the unraced Remember The Boys.

He posted a career-best tally of winners last season, collecting seven victories.

The CS is run alongside the Country Cups Challenge.

The Country Cups Challenge Final over 1600 metres ($200,000) and Country Stampede over 1110 metres ($105,000) will be conducted at Doomben on Saturday, November 30.

The second CS heat will be run at Ewan this Friday before the CCC heats commence from next Saturday.