Sprinter well in at weights
STAR Tasmanian mare Deroche will make her longawaited return to racing in Devonport on Sunday, but punters should be prepared for prohibitive odds.
The corporate bookies have yet to assess the meeting, but Deroche is set to line up in the opening event on the eight-race card, which is an open handicap boasting only six final acceptors.
Even though Deroche’s stablemate Newhart is one of the six, he has been allotted 65kg with Daniel Ganderton booked to ride.
Deroche is pitched into the race with 56kg but will carry the minimum of 54kg courtesy of apprentice Codi Jordan’s two-kilogram claim.
Deroche is regarded as one of the state’s best sprinters and while last season she didn’t perform to expectations, her recent trial suggests the daughter of Needs Further has returned bigger and better than ever.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with how Deroche has come on since her two trials and she will go into Sunday’s race in very good order,” Campbell said.
“I’ll wait to see how she comes through this race on Sunday before looking at her next start, but I am looking at a mares benchmark 90 at Sandown in three weeks.
“With this Covid situation happening it’s very hard to make any firm plans as far as racing interstate is concerned.”
Deroche has had two trials leading into Sunday’s assignment and both hit-outs were impressive.
Newhart also has trialled twice, the latest on Tuesday in which he finished third to Mystic Journey and Still a Star over 1009m in Devonport, but he was only a couple of bounds away from finishing second.
“Newhart’s trial on Tuesday was brilliant and if his bloods come back perfect, as I expect they will, he’ll go around on Sunday as well.”
The last horse to carry 65kg and win on the synthetic was Campbell’s star stayer Eastender that ran Settler’s Stone down in the last stride to win an open handicap over 1880m in April 2019.
Small fields are the order of the day on Sunday with only three races boasting fields of 12 or more with the remaining four races delivering fields of only seven, which will impact betting turnover.
But despite the small fields, most are likely to be open betting races and be very competitive.
The Adam Trinder-trained mare Tassie Miss gets her chance to break her maiden status in The Ladbroke It Maiden over 1650m (race 3).
Tassie Miss was placed second last start behind Karnak Kid in a Devonport maiden over 1650m three weeks ago, finishing under two lengths from the winner and doing her best work late.
Trinder also will be expecting improvement from impeccably bred three-year-old filly Miss Tuppence (Capitalist-Starlevie) in the class one (race 6) over 1009m.
Miss Tuppence resumed from a lengthy spell with a luckless seventh of nine in Devonport three weeks ago when the victim of an outside gate.
She has again drawn poorly (15) but she has that run under her belt and will strip a lot fitter for that outing.