NEWCASTLE trainer Sam Kavanagh has opted for a barrier trial rather than another race for Kayobi leading in to the $500,000 The Coast at Gosford in a fortnight.
Kavanagh nominated the talented four-year-old for races at Tamworth tomorrow, along with Hawkesbury and Doomben on Saturday, but chose not to accept in any.
“Kayobi will trial on Wednesday on the Beaumont track, and then go to The Coast,” he said this morning.
Kayobi suffered his first defeat since joining Kavanagh’s team last year when favorite and fourth to Spangler in the $500,000 Provincial-Midway Championship Final (1400m) at Royal Randwick on April 8 on Day 2 of The Championships.
He had won the 1200m Gosford Qualifier first-up on March 16, and certainly wasn’t disgraced in the Final; the heavy track dulling the brilliance he showed in his previous four wins for his new trainer.
Kavanagh is following a similar path to that used successfully last year by fellow Newcastle trainer Kris Lees, who won The Coast (1600m) with Rustic Steel.
That gelding had also finished fourth in the Provincial-Midway Final before winning a 1200m trial on the Beaumont track and then defeating O’President and Old Flame in The Coast, with Jay Ford aboard.
Rustic Steel subsequently went on to also capture the Scone Cup (1600m) and later in the year the inaugural running of the $2m The Big Dance (1600m) at Randwick.
Kavanagh has decided on today's $200,000 Big Dance Eligibility Tamworth Cup (1400m) for stablemate Aramayo.
Kavanagh has chosen to head to Tamworth despite a wide draw (18) and engaged Luke Rolls to ride.
Chris Waller pair Skyman and Yonkers have been withdrawn from the Hawkesbury Cup, and instead will start in the Tails Stakes at Doomben.
My Whisper is also a Cup scratching; those three withdrawals providing starts for the first three emergencies Superium, Wild Chap and Bold Mac.
However, My Whisper’s stablemate, the fourth reserve Dynasties (Chad Schofield), needs another scratching to secure a start.
*Words John Curtis April 20 - Pics Bradley Photos*
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