A narrow victory for Gloryess at the Tamworth racecourse last Saturday provided Gunnedah horse trainer Gavin Groth with his first win of the 2026 calendar year.

Trained by Groth and owned by Brendan Smith and local racing identity Tom Torrens, Gloryess was the equal-tenth favourite in a field of 13 in the last of the six races while the distance was 1600m.

Gloryess was at or near the back of the pack for much of the time in hot conditions on the track rated a Good 3, before passing other horses on the outside while running out wide for the length of the straight.

The gap between the winner and the runner-up was a mere 0.22 of a length.

It was Gloryess’s third career victory, with the first occurring at Tamworth on May 31 last year before the next win was at Coonabarabran on July 19.

Both of those wins also featured tiny margins between the winner and runner-up, with much shorter odds than the $61 starting price which Gloryess had last weekend.

Following its win at Coonabarabran, Gloryess had an 18-week spell and then had placings ranging from fifth to 13th in its following four races.

Groth said last weekend’s victory suggested there were more wins ahead for the gelding, which has been nominated to race at Walcha this Friday.

Groth said Gloryess had had problems with its feet, prompting the trainer to put blinkers on the gelding.

“A combination of getting his feet right and putting the blinkers on did the trick,” Groth said.

Having had four runners in Tamworth on the day, Groth later said he was deflated considering all four runners had drawn a wide gate which severely hampered their winning chances.

Groth’s first three runners finished second-last in their respective races, before Gloryess provided a stark contrast.

The Gunnedah-based trainer said there wasn’t really a plan for the final race, as he left it in the hands of the jockey, Billy Cray.

“Billy just bided his time,” Groth said.

“It was about patience, more than anything.”

Meanwhile the sixth favourite – Via Rose – trained by Gunnedah’s Sally Torrens, was in the lead for a while before finishing second-last.

Torrens had an otherwise sound day, with two fourth placings followed by two third placings.

With Walcha hosting races this Friday and Saturday, Groth is expecting to have anything up to five runners.

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