A busy start to the week for us with multiple trials at Warwick Farm and Cranbourne on Monday, and Geelong on Tuesday.
Warwick Farm
Starting off with Monday morning’s Warwick farm trial for Nettles, which was also the first career trial for the 2yo daughter of Overshare. Trained by Annabel Neasham, the filly finished 5th under a hold just behind the Listed winner Saltaire.
“Really good trial. She jumped well, had really good gate speed, got across and travelled well,” said jockey Chad Schofield post trial.
Should Nettles come through the trial well, she will likely head towards a second trial in two weeks’ time and be hopefully off to the races afterwards.
Cranbourne
Monday morning also saw two of OTI’s horses return to the trials at Cranbourne, Rivaport and Miss Subtly.
After a very unlucky but promising first preparation for Miss Subtly with four seconds from four starts, the filly has returned in good form, winning her trial yesterday.
“I’m very happy with her, a good trial and she finished off strong to the line. She will have another one in two weeks and then heads to the races at the end of February,” said trainer Grahame Begg after the trial.
The filly by Rich Enuff has proven to be most competitive, only missing out on the win by less than 0.2 length in her last three starts. We are confident she can complete the maiden task this preparation!
Also back for her second trial this prep was 5yo mare Rivaport, who is yet to make her Australian race debut. The mare is already a winner and multiple place getter in France, having won impressively by 2.5 lengths. She finished 2nd in her jumpout and seems very professional in the way she does things.
“A nice staying trial. She jumped out well, landed behind them and travelled good and kept improving to the line. She could possibly race in a couple of weeks time at Sandown, which will be a nice kick-off point for her,” reported Grahame Begg post-trial.
Geelong
Tuesday’s trials at Geelong kicked off with a bang as I’m Thunderstruck won his trial against feature fellow stars Alligator Blood, In The Boat and El Patroness. It was the 5yo’s second trial for his upcoming preparation, which will kick off in the Group 1 C.F. Orr Stakes at Sandown on Saturday week.
“We are very happy with him and he looks terrific,” said co-trainer Michael Kent Jnr post trial.
“He did everything right, he’s perfect. When I asked him to give a bit more he was responsive and I couldn’t have been happier with him,” said jockey Jamie Kah, who rode Thunder in his trial and will also accompany him in The Orr in two weeks.
We also saw Selino return at Geelong for his second trial this preparation for trainer Chris Waller.
“After a long time off he returned in good order and has a nice action on him. I was a bit surprised, because he actually went really well and we weren’t far off the leaders. He has built a good fitness base and tied me up around the corner and gradually found the line. Action wise and breathing he’s perfect, hopefully he continues in the right direction and returns to some bigger races.”, said Mick Dee after riding Selino in the trial.
The 7yo will now most likely return to Sydney to continue his preparation and hopefully we can see him back at the races very soon, with the Group 1 Sydney Cup set as his main target.
We look forward to cheering for all of them at the races soon.