Gwennybegg was at her best at the Sapphire Coast meet on 30 March when she won her 17th race.

Trained at Jindabyne by Georgie Boucher, the 10-year-old mare was ridden to a treat by Caitlan Sinclair from barrier one, hugging the rail and taking the lead at the 100 to win by a half length from Fire And Gemstone.

Gwennybegg is raced by Georgie, Michael Flanagan and Pam Clothier, Georgie’s mother. Regarded as an outsider in the eight horse field at 20-1, Gwennybegg was placed well with a light handicap weight and showed her usual tenacity to win the challenge offered by the runner-up.

The Joseph and Jones Racing (JJR) team also had a winner at the meeting with Inchyra ridden by Pierre Boudvillain taking out a 1000 metre maiden race. The mare is raced by the JJR Partnership, Peter and Barbara Joseph, Maree Guthrie-Curran, Matt and Diana Jones, Michael Walcott, Mr J Lyons, Mrs G R Lyons, former Jindabyne resident Marita Brandauer, Mr P R Bracey, Mrs L D Bracey, Mr S Page, Mr R M Allport, Mr P J Hughes, Mrs V Hughes, P M and D J McGlynn.

At Randwick last week, the NSW Country Championships final with a million dollars in prize-money was taken out by the Brett and Georgie Cavanough, Scone, trained Chidiac, ridden by Zac Purton.

In what was an outstanding run, the JJR trained Graceful Ellen chased home Chidiac to finish in second, pocketing $195,000 for the ownership group.

Whilst ridden by Alysha Collett on Saturday, the JJR team pointed out that apprentice Claire Ramsbotham had qualified the mare in the Goulburn wildcard qualifier and in fact had ridden her in all of her previous wins, but was not considered experienced enough to ride in Saturday’s final.

Graceful Ellen was only a $3000 purchase by the trainers for the ownership group of JJR Partnership, Peter Joseph, Diana Jones, Maree Guthrie-Curran, Mr S N Crowder, Andrew “Grassy” Caldwell from Cooma, Mr B MacAlpine, Ms P R Summerell, Ms K Medved, Mr P W Pratt, Mr P G Bush, Mr H P Dabin, Mr D C Stephens, D J and Mrs P M McGlynn, Mrs H Hromow, Mrs J Webster, Ms K M Kelly, Ms S Anderson-Rule and Mrs K A Sweeney.