Racing: Gibbs stable to fore in apprentice race

The Avondale races on August 3 will be where the New Zealand Apprentice Championship final will be decided.

The country's leading apprentice jockeys from the three racing regions will do battle in two specially assigned races.

Those contests will also decide a side issue for two of the best, current championship leader Buddy Lammas, and Laura Cheshire.

The pair are apprenticed to Jim Gibbs at Matamata and can't agree on who holds the upper hand in the play fights at the stable.

Cheshire, 21, is adamant she is unbeaten at fighting and the 18-year-old Lammas claims the score is at least even.

"I've lost count of the times I've chucked Buddy in the feed bin," says Cheshire.

She returned to race riding at Avondale last Wednesday after twice breaking her ankle since her last raceday at Hastings on January 20.

Lammas laughs when told of Cheshire's scoreboard.

"Cameron [brother] and I got Laura with the old water bucket trick the other day, which was a laugh because she was just about to go home and had to get into her nice clean car soaking wet."

Cheshire and Lammas can afford to be jocular, as can Cameron Lammas and Jim Gibbs.

Cameron Lammas has just completed his hugely successful apprenticeship.

And Gibbs must get enormous satisfaction from producing three of the top four young riders in the championship restricted to apprentice jockeys in the Northern region.

Buddy Lammas heads the list by 10 points from Claire Anderson with three points to Cameron Lammas and two to Laura Cheshire.

Cheshire's record is remarkable given she did not compete for six months of the season.

She held a clear lead in the championship for apprentice-only races when she was sidelined.

The ankle injury she received in the Hastings crash was serious.

She was only weeks away from resuming race riding when she arranged to ride a horse in trackwork at Avondale on May 6.

"I was pulled up at the lights outside the Avondale track and a bloke smashed into my car.

"I had to wait one hour for the police to arrive and by the time I got on course the horse I was due to ride had already been worked."

Not wanting to miss the opportunity to test the ankle, Cheshire agreed to get on a filly she did not know.

The filly reared, fell backwards and Cheshire broke the same ankle she had spent four months rehabilitating.

Although still limping noticeably, Cheshire says the ankle has no trouble holding up under raceday conditions.

"People have me on about limping, but there is still scar tissue on the tendon that needs to break down. It'll be fine."

She says she gets enormous pleasure from throwing Buddy Lammas into the feed bin.

"Trust Buddy, it had to be him that forged ahead of my lead in the championship.

"He also picked up a lot of my rides and has kept some of them.

"I won two races on Devonport Lad and now it looks as though Buddy will ride him in the Winter Cup. But he's a good sort and I don't mind."

Cheshire had five rides at Ruakaka today, reduced to three with scratchings yesterday.

The best horse she will throw a leg over will be that fine old handicapper El Duce, who has to lump 59kg topweight, even with Cheshire's 2kg apprentice claim.

That means he will carry 4.5kg more than the next in the handicap event, another group one winner, Sir Kinloch. But even that might not be enough to keep El Duce out of contention if he can get a grip on the Ruakaka surface.

Giant Strides looked a good ride, but it has drawn gate No 18 over 1200m and it might not be quite wet enough for Van Dyke.

Buddy Lammas has not ridden for a month after dislocating a shoulder in a fall at the Waipa trials.

He resumes race riding next Saturday.

* The lineup for the Avondale twin races on August 3 is:

The two Lammas brothers, Claire Anderson and Laura Cheshire for the Northern region, competing against Matthew Cameron, Chad Ormsby, Vanessa Johnston and Johnathon Parkes from the Central Region and from the South Island, Tracey Newton, Jarrod Todd, Laura Parker and Gina Thomson.