Weather won’t derail Johnstone’s Association Cup tilt

By Isaac Murphy

The deluge of rain over South East Queensland is causing headaches for kennels throughout the region who are attempting to keep their dogs in shape with facilities compromised.

Darren Johnstone is bearing the brunt of it as he tries to move house amid the flooding, but the trainer wasn’t going to let the rain stop him getting star stayer Maggie Moo Moo to New South Wales where her Association Cup campaign will begin on Saturday night at Wentworth Park.

“It’s been more than chaotic at home, if the move from Harrisville to Churchable wasn’t stressful enough, the rain’s come along and made it a whole lot harder,” Johnstone laughed.

“We’d been in the process of moving dogs to Churchable, but it’s an absolute mud pit at Harrisville and I had to rely on Warren Nicholls to come give me a hand transferring all the dogs to the new property on Sunday.

“I’m sure I’m not the only one going through it, it’s tough for all trainers but changing location and trying to keep dogs ready to race when meetings are being called off has been tough work.”

Maggie Moo Moo has been a revelation over the staying trip at Albion Park, and five straight victories have her poised for something bigger.

“Maggie Moo Moo has been head and shoulders our top performer of the last couple of months and with no Free For All on at Albion Park Thursday night, we’ve managed to get her down to Sydney where she’ll race this Saturday in preparation for the Association Cup heats the following week,” Johnstone said.

“She went down yesterday and is being taken care of by a trainer called Michael Hodges who was recommended to me by Justin Bowe; Michael has had It’s a Rush for Justin down there for over a month and going great guns - I’m hoping for more of the same.

“Once I expressed interest, Michael got in touch with me and said he’d love to have her, so we got everything organised and off she went.”

Maggie will get her first look at Wentworth Park this Saturday where she’ll jump from the red in the main lead up race to next week’s heats.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how she fares in the lead up race Saturday night, she meets a couple in Sunset Bourbski and Let’s See who gave her a bit of a touch up in Brisbane, but she’s come a long way since then,” Johnstone said.

“It would have been nice to give her a trial Tuesday night but they were all cancelled, we’ve just got to trust that residual fitness will stay with her and hopefully her newfound box manners as well.

“I’m hoping she can lead from the one and give them a sight.

“Everywhere I’ve taken her fresh in the past she’s come out and raced really well, Sydney is obviously a far more significant trip, but I’m optimistic she’ll measure up.”

Johnstone has established himself as a top-line trainer over the last 12 months but is yet to do much travel, however fellow trainer Justin Bowe is helping him find his feet.

“Having Justin as a sounding board is probably what convinced me to go, not only did he recommend a kennel, we had a great reference point with his bitch Slick Raven who’d gone down there and raced well over the staying trip,” Johnstone said.

“Slick Raven has gone 36.95 over the 630 at Ipswich and we went 36.99 a fortnight ago, it gave me a gauge that she should make the grade.

“The opportunity was simply too good to pass up and even with everything going on at home I didn’t want that to affect her career and I’m grateful she’ll get her chance.”

Maggie Moo Moo was a product of Johnstone’s first ever litter out of Fernando Bale and Stay Warm, with the dam a bitch that struggled to even go 500 metres.

“I say it a lot, but I just can’t believe she’s got to the point where she’s contesting Group staying races, in pre-training she would struggle to break 25.8 over the 431 at Ipswich,” he said.

“I’d almost written the litter off until I took a shot in the dark and began to get her up over more ground and she’s just continued to surprise me.

“We’ve never known whether she would make the grade and she just stepped up each time; I was rapt making the Gold Cup Final, and if we can make an Association Cup Final that’d be huge.”

With a touch of luck, Maggie Moo Moo can become a mainstay on the distance circuit, with plenty of time on her side.

“She’s at the point now where we know her best is good enough to be competitive in races like this and that’s all I’m really looking for out of this trip, to show she belongs,” Johnstone said.

“She’s only two-and-a-half years old, if we don’t have any problems with injury she’ll still be racing when the Sunset Bourbskis of the world are retiring - her time will come.

“I look at her as the hunter now, she’s trying to get to the level, let’s hope one day she can become the hunted.”