Career best winning haul for trainer Ken Boody

By Alex Nolan

Trainer Ken Boody took a large team from his Dalma property to Rockhampton on Wednesday hoping to jag three winners.

He would return a few hours later with a career best seven, including a clean sweep of the Country Cup Heats.

Boody’s winners were: Girls And Pearls ($2.50), Won’t Win Larson ($16), Blue Jeans Talk ($4.60), Pereira ($3), Love You Peaches ($1.80), Wink At Me ($2.25), and Molly’s My Mum ($12).

“It’s still sinking in,” Boody said a couple of days later. 

“That’s definitely my best night at the races.”

Love You Peaches and Wink At Me were brilliant winners of their respective Country Cup Heats and look hard to toss in next week’s Final, where a top-two finish will guarantee their place in next month’s $23,700 Racing Queensland Country Cup at Albion Park.

Love You Peaches, who turns three on Sunday, again showed her customary strength at the end of the 510 metre trip and Boody is contemplating setting her for some 600 metre events in Brisbane.

“She hits a little bit of a flat spot mid-race but if she’s still in front on that last corner she’s so strong over the 500 metres,” Boody said.

“We’ll wait to get through this Cup series and then look at the 600 metres after that but it is a long way to go for one dog all the time.

“We’ll step some of the others up to 500 metres and see whether we can put together a team to tackle the Albion Park meetings.”

Boody stepped away from the sport for close to 12 years before a surge in prize money and lifelong love of the sport tempted him back.

He has now recorded more than 100 winners since his return to training in 2020 and if Wednesday night’s results are anything to go by, that tally could swell in 2022.

He said the results can be largely credited to trusting the process and some sound advice from his Uncle and Aunty, Mick and Amber Boody, with whom he recently joined forces with.

“I think out of my first 100 starters I only had six winners and I was left scratching my head,” he said.

“You start looking to change things and question whether you’ve made the right call.

“But I realised you can’t go changing everything when you’ve had a bad trot. If you trust the process things will start to work out.”

Boody now hopes he can qualify his runners for the Country Cup Final in Brisbane and get a crack at the big prize money on offer.

“I’m a big fan of the series and wish there was more of them," he said.