Unlike in New South Wales where travelling can take up to five hours to some meetings to get rides, in Queensland the tracks are in a radius under two hours away.

This was less tiring with more time devoted to trackwork and hopefully more rides.

As for fianc�, Glen Milligan, he is also enjoying the stint working for Mayfield-Smith.

He and Schubert have been an item for 4.5 years and any plans to get married (they are engaged) have been put on the back-burner while career plans are in train.

Will get better

Four-year-old Port Macquarie gelding Xaarmelody, a recent winner at Taree, maybe gangly in his action but trainer Glen Hodge reckons the galloper will only get "better and better".

Xaarmelody's record is not bad so far with three wins from six starts and prizemoney of nearly $34,000 and more will be forthcoming once the distances increase from the gelding's first-up from a spell effort over 1000m.

"He also won first-up last preparation,"said Hodge.

"A couple of runs he got beat but he shouldn't have."

A stone bruise, vet inspections, a chiropractor and blacksmiths have all been part of the preparation to get Xaarmelody back on track.

"He is so big and tall that he must feel the weight but there is still a lot of improvement left in him.

"Most of the breed (by Xaar) win up to 2000m and I hope he will."

Hodge put the blinkers back on for the Taree win and this proved a winning blow.

But to show there is more learning to do were in the comments of winning rider, Port's Matt Bennett.

"The horse settled nice but as soon as he hit the front,his head went straight up."

The rider of the second placed horse, Shane Treweek on Now Now, fired in a protest alleging interference but stewards were quick to dismiss it.

Hodge owns Xaarmelody with his daughters Sharon McCudden and Terese Schmidt and they should have a lot of fun.

Absent winners

The accent on more TAB race meetings is very trying for owners who have to work and can't be trackside to cheer on their horses.

Take members of the Kempsey syndicate who own five-year-old gelding Long Journey Home,trained at Port by Neil Godbolt.

They were trackside to cheer their galloper home, albeit by an easy 5.5 lengths at Port on October 10, a rare TAB meeting on a Saturday.

But when it won at Taree at its next start, they were absent.

"They had to work (Friday) but they will be listening or watching,"said Godbolt.

The syndicate members probably worked more strenuously riding Long Journey Home than most of the work they did that afternoon because the win was hard-fought,right down to a short head margin.

The win wasn't as easy as its previous start when allowed to lead and dictate terms as Long Journey Home had it served up to him early and then got into a titanic duel with Port's Bored which weakened to fourth.

Long Journey Home was "a sitting duck" then but still managed to stave off Broadmeadow mare Miss Ghataas.

Two wins and two placings at its past four starts should have the team happy.

Godbolt purchased the former Gerald Ryan galloper for about $4500 and the syndicate should be in the black.

Godbolt wants to teach Long Journey Home to settle better in its races to be more competitive over longer journeys (maybe the Port Cup next year) but as things transpired at Taree that tactic was not forthcoming.

Port jockey Marlon Dolendo said Long Journey Home didn't want to be in the race early and in being back "wanted to go".

Still the effort was meritorious as the gelding went from winning a maiden to scoring in a class 2 race and there should be more wins in store.

Plenty of placings

Ten placings, seven of them for second, is enough to have any trainer wanting to pull their hair out in frustration, but not so Taree trainer Bindi Cheers.

She bought five-year-old gelding North Street as a tried galloper and soon after taking over his training, she got a win.

Since then she has travelled wide and far but of late the provincials and in the city is where North Street has excelled.

Four seconds and a third have resulted and the prizemoney is more than what could be earned with some wins and placings in the coutry.

She managed to pick the right race for North Street at Gosford last Thursday, after the gelding was a narrow second at its previous start there,and Kathy O'Hara did the right thing with a win.

Along with Cheers' Lucky Elmo, which has been very competitive in Sydney company, she is flying the flag for the Mid North Coast trainers in the big smoke.

O'Hara was also successful with a dead-heat on King Lyphard for Taree trainer Tess Wilkes at the same meeting.

King Lyphard was finding it hard to tackle recent big country cups but showed racing had benefitted the nine-year-old gelding with a last to the dead-heat in the last stride.

Wilkes didn't get the thick end of first money, unlike Cheers with $10,400, but the prizemoney will come in handy while she again tries to establish herself on the Mid North Coast.