Uncle Bob wins Boulia Cup in camel racing

The camel from the Oakfield Ranch stable near Newcastle, New South Wales took victory last week in Bedourie and went one better to take out the Boulia event on Sunday.

While the Bedourie event is over 400m, Uncle Bob and jockey Chontelle Jannese had to outlast the other finalists for 1500 long metres in the Boulia event, the longest camel race in Australia and known for good reason as the Melbourne Cup of camel racing.

Last year’s winner Glenda Sutton – in her 20^th year of racing at Boulia - brought back her mount Chief to try to repeat the dose but she admitted Chief was nowhere near as good as he used to be.

There was some consolation for Sutton as she trained the mount that finished third, Ace ridden by Tiana Taratoa.

But it was a long behind Pete who finished second with Maryellen Boyd aboard to give trainer Rod Sansom and Oakfield connections a quinella in the Quality Electrical Qld Boulia Cup.

There was no disputing the winner, Uncle Bob stormed clear down the straight to win by the proverbial desert country mile.

It completed an incredible meet for Jannese who had a clean sweep in all eight of her races over the weekend and a second win for Uncle Bob which won four years ago when owned at the time by the Woodhouse family.

Uncle Bob also won the 400m final ahead of Pete ridden by Kyrraley Woodhouse and Razor Back Jack ridden by Maryellen Blacket.

The P & G Harris Quarter Mile Flyer was an Oakfield Ranch whitewash, taking out first, second and third.

Organisers were delighted with the success of the weekend-long event which attracted another huge crowd, despite the cool overnight minimum temperatures with entertainment all weekend to go with the racing.