INNOCENT VICTIM IN STRADBROKE EXODUS
Music Magnate, the likely second topweight, is also going to be spelled.
Other horses that will receive weights in the 54-55kg range like Rebel Dane, Takedown, English and Fell Swoop are not running in the 1400m race either.
Clearly Innocent’s weight will depend on how harshly handicapper Nathan Bourke treats his dominant win in the weight-for-age Kingsford Smith Cup (1300m) win at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
He would have been near or on the limit before Saturday’s victory.
Newcastle trainer Kris Lees expressed his desire for Clearly Innocent to receive a weight that will enable Hugh Bowman to retain the ride. That will be a formality now.
Under the rules, minimum topweight for the Stradbroke has to be 57kg after acceptors, so weights will have to be raised.
To what extent, likely depends on Clearly Innocent’s impost.
Sydney trainer Bjorn Baker said while Music Magnate would be an absentee, he could still have two Stradbroke runners with Egyptian Symbol and Bonny O’Reilly.
“Egyptian Symbol will run next in either the Dane Ripper or Stradbroke,” he said of the mare, who is owned in the same interests as Clearly Innocent.
“I would love to get Bonny O’Reilly in. She will be nominated for a fillies and mares Listed race and the Moreton Cup next Saturday.
“I will just wait and have a look at the first acceptors to see how far down the order she is.
“The mares race is the preference but, if she’s too far down, we might have a crack at the Moreton Cup to try to get the exemption.”
On Melbourne’s RSN radio yesterday, Weir described Black Heart Bart’s fifth place in the Kingsford Smith Cup as “really brave”.
“He got a long way back and the conditions were very testing for him,” he said.
“He doesn’t like that sort of ground,” he said.
“He’s come out of it really well and goes to Washpool to have three weeks off.”
Weir said his Queensland Derby contender Volatile Mix pulled up well after his narrow miss in the Grand Prix Stakes.
“If he had handled the last corner a bit better, he probably wins the race,” Weir said.