Weeding Trio Primed for Narrandera Cup Assault

Craig Weeding has made the Narrandera Cup his own in recent years.

Now-retired stable champion Prince of Helena won the race in 2023 and 2024 and just fell short of a historic three-peat in 2025, finishing second to the Luke Pepper-trained Hot Bandit.

Prince of Helena was subsequently tested in multiple $3 million Big Dances, and on Sunday, Weeding will be hoping to qualify one of his new stable stars for the rich country cup final, which will be run and won at Royal Randwick on the first Tuesday in November.

Representing the Wangaratta stable will be Indispensable, Yam and Make It Sweet in the $70,000 Bendigo Community Bank Narrandera Cup.

Indispensable, also entered at Caulfield on Saturday, is coming off a promising fourth in the 1700m Benchmark 78 Handicap at Caulfield late last month.

Shaun Guymer has been locked in for the ride, but the nine-year-old Akeed Mofeed gelding is awkwardly drawn in gate 13.

A multiple Listed winner, Indispensable is arguably the best horse in the race on his day and has been knocking on the door of a feature race win for Weeding and connections.

Stable apprentice Cassidy Hill will ride recent Caulfield winner Yam, who will be one of the market favourites.

An eight-time winner that relishes soft and heavy ground, the five-year-old Pluck gelding will benefit from the rain forecast on Saturday, almost guaranteeing a soft surface on Sunday.

Suited to the distance and drawn well, Yam’s biggest challenger could be stablemate Make It Sweet.

Stable jockey Jake Duffy rides the five-year-old Fiorente mare, who has drawn perfectly in gate one.

Tractable and versatile, Make It Sweet profiles nicely third-up over 1600m and will likely start as race favourite — or very close to it — in what appears to be a competitive field.

A five-time winner, Make It Sweet has been set for this race and gets in nicely for an assault at this event and, potentially, the Big or Little Dance later in the year.

On what will be a busy day for the Weeding team, last-start Wagga winner Big Day Out (Cassidy Hill) has drawn gate two in the $40,000 Eurell’s Narrandera and Yamaha Golf Cars Narrungdera Yarraman Sprint (1000m), and Black Frost (Jake Duffy) steps up again in distance when taking on the $30,000 Dusty Hooves Media Stayers Cup (2100m).

Rounding out the stable’s day will be King De Lune (Cassidy Hill), which also drew well with gate two in the Elders Coleambally Benchmark 58 Handicap for the colts and geldings.

With five runners across the card, it shapes as one of Weeding’s biggest days at Narrandera — and if the rain arrives as forecast, connections will be dreaming of more than just one trip to Royal Randwick in November.

Image: Racing Photos.

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