Weir loads up for home cup

DARREN Weir will gang tackle his hometown $350,000 Ballarat Cup on Saturday with possibly seven starters.

Weir is considering running Lucky For All, Master Zephyr, Tradesman, Kiwia, Another Coldie, Andrea Mantegna and Top Prospect.

He said he would make a decision during the week whether they would all run.

Another Coldie has won the Horsham and Kyneton cups at his past two starts.

Andrea Mantegna is a laststart country cup winner in the Ararat Cup, a race in which Master Zephyr finished third.

Weir’s Warrnambool stable foreman, Jarrod McLean, said Kiwia and Tradesman had pulled up well after running in the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown. Kiwia was an unlucky fifth and Tradesman finished seventh and he expected them to run in the $350,000 race.

McLean last night flew five horses to Perth for the summer carnival, including four of Weir’s and his own last-start Mackinnon Stakes winner, Trap For Fools.

The horses will be stabled at Lindsey Smith’s Casuarina property.

Iconoclasm and Peaceful State will contest Saturday’s Group 1 $1 million Railway Stakes (1600m) and Junipal will run in the Western Australia Guineas (1600m)

The following Saturday, Voodoo Lad will run in the $1 million Winterbottom Stakes (1200m) while Trap For Fools will run in the $1 million Kingston Town Classic (1800m) on December 8.

Caulfield trainer Mick Price intends to contact Racing Victoria chairman Brian Kreuger and chief steward Jamie Stier this morning after his mare Pedrena was scratched from the final race at Sandown due to lashing out while in the barriers.

Price said Pedrena’s behaviour was because he could not use the banned hormone control substance Regumate.