A heavy track has put doubts on starts for the first and second favorites in tomorrow’s Provincial-Midway Championships Qualifier at Kembla Grange.
Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup has the $3.30 favorite Ausbred Flirt and his Newcastle counterpart Kris Lees the $6.50 joint second favorite Dream Hour, and neither is keen to run their horse on testing ground.
Widdup will wait until as late as possible to see if there is improvement in Friday morning’s “Heavy 9” rating, whilst Lees has not declared a rider for Dream Hour and said he doesn’t want to start him on a heavy track.
Illawarra Turf Club course manager Dave Anderson has reported 77.5mm of rain being recorded in the past week. The rail is out 4 metres from the 1100m to the winning post, and 3m for the remainder of the circuit.
“I prefer not to run Ausbred Flirt on anything worse than a ‘Soft 6’,” Widdup said on Friday morning.
“If we don’t run at Kembla Grange, there is still the Wyong Qualifier (1350m) next Saturday.”
Ausbred Flirt is unbeaten in two starts at Kembla Grange in Class 1 and Benchmark 68 Handicap company over 1500m and 1600m in November and December, 2022.
Both those wins were on good ground – and by a combined total of more than 11 lengths.
She has never raced on a heavy track, and her five starts on soft ground have produced a solitary win; against her own sex in a Benchmark 72 Handicap (1400m) at Warwick Farm last April.
Widdup won the corresponding Kembla Grange Qualifier (1400m) 12 months ago with Short Shorts (who has again qualified for this year’s $1m Final at Royal Randwick on April 13), and will still have a runner at Kembla Grange if Ausbred Flirt comes out.
He is now training talented five-year-old Ruby Flyer, who has had a change of ownership.
The lightly-raced gelding’s previous trainers Jason Attard and Lucy Keegan-Attard did a terrific job with him, winning four of 10 starts.
Ruby Flyer’s first two victories in a Provincial Maiden Plate (1350m) at Wyong and Midway Class 1 Handicap (1600m) at Hawkesbury in April and May last year were by dominant margins, albeit in weaker class than he will face tomorrow.
But he showed he is clearly up to better company by finishing third to Bold Mac and Protagonist in the Listed Rowley Mile at Hawkesbury last August before a break.
Ruby Flyer has been with his new trainer for only a few weeks, and finished sixth to last Saturday’s Rosehill Gardens winner Red Card in a 1000m barrier trial at home on March 11 in preparation for his resumption.
Short Shorts (Alysha Collett) will have her lead-up to the PMC Final in tomorrow’s Group 3 Birthday Card Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens, and her stablemate, last start Randwick winner Tintookie, also lines up despite drawing the outside barrier in a big field.
Lees, who has already qualified Tavi Time, Convincebility and Willinga Beast for the April 13 Final, accepted with seven horses in tomorrow’s Kembla Grange Qualifier.
If as expected Dream Hour bypasses the race, he will still run Cloudland (Andrew Gibbons), Basarwa (Jeff Penza), Little Beginnings (Christian Reith), Sailor (Ben Osmond), Baltic Coast (Keagan Latham), and Per Inaway (Louise Day).
Cloudland ran second to Short Shorts 12 months ago to qualify for the Final, and was resuming when third to Territory Express in the opening Qualifier of this year’s series over the same course on February 29.
A very consistent five-year-old, Cloudland has raced 12 times for five wins and as many seconds.
Lees has decided to take blinkers off Basarwa, and leading Kembla Grange trainers Rob and Luke Price are putting blinkers back on their representative Victory Lane (Brock Ryan), but visors come off.
Fellow Kembla Grange trainer Ben Smith has secured a start with first emergency Mah Ali (Grant Buckley) following Kayobi’s withdrawal.
. The latest TAB.com.au prices of the eight horses already qualified are:
$2.80 Tavi Time (Kris Lees)
$4 Territory Express (Paul Niceforo)
$5 Shadows Of Love (Kim Waugh)
$15 Short Shorts (Brad Widdup)
$15 Willaidow (Marc Connners)
$15 Willinga Beast (Lees)
$34 Nosey Parker (Paul Perry)
$51 Convincebility (Lees)
Story John Curtis, March 22, 2024 - Pics Bradley Photos
Michael Craig’s selections for the Kembla Grange meeting are:
Race 1 - 7 Lulumon showed ability last preparation
4 Monte Supreme resuming from a short break
5 Opal Fields not far away in recent runs
Race 2 - 4 Baile Fervor will be hard to hold out
5 Dolzino had no luck when resuming
1 Lonhanova battled on well at Gosford
Race 3 - 4 Glebe ready after 2 recent trials
3 Share The Joy improved effort last start
5 Investment will be improved by one run back
Race 4 - 1 C’mon Mate third in tougher company last start
8 Monte Maximus good run here first up
3 Mah Ali backing up from Hawkesbury on Tuesday
Race 5 - 1 The New Sinatra in the marker at both race starts
3 Eye of the Fire has trialled impressively
2 Star Act performed well in town last preparation
Race 6 - 10 Cosmos ready to go first up
4 Impulsivity racing in fine form
6 Lounerse is back sharply in grade
Race 7 - 6 Briasa strong win on debut
3 Headstock has a good record over this trip
8 Bully For You could race well fresh
Race 8 - 9 Ausbred Flirt quality mare who will be hard to beat
11 Victory Lane will be improved good run when resuming
12 Tavs ran a course record here 2 starts back
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