Tregea switching priorities on best hope
UNLIKE most trainers, Steve Tregea does not have to use diplomacy in assessing today’s Doomben rivals Prioritise and Rhyming, because he also owns them.
Before their respective last starts, Tregea had thought Rhyming was the better of the duo, but Prioritise has usurped her after showing a neat turn of foot to win at Caloundra.
“I do like the filly (Rhyming), but maybe I’m hoping be- cause she’s got a pedigree and it would be nice for the family if she could go on, but based on Prioritise’s last-start win, he looks the better,” Tregea said.
“Prioritise has a tendency to hang in, so we trialled him in a one-eyed blinker this week and he went really well. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I would use it (today), but when the draw came out, I put them on.
“He half-fired up early in the trial and that might be a help getting across from out there.”
Punters are having trouble separating Prioritise and Care To Think after there was little between the pair at Caloundra.
“It’s probably going to come down to luck in running and I’m hoping (Care To Think) is going to need more luck than us,” Tregea said.
“If we get in from the gate, we should have the in-running advantage.”
Rhyming ran respectably in the Queensland Guineas and Tregea thought her next outing at Rockhampton would be “an easy kill” but she failed to fire and finished sixth as an odds-on favourite.
“She’s a stubborn thing and I don’t think she settled in too well,” Tregea said. “I felt something wasn’t quite right, plus they said the track was quite hard and her best runs have been on soft-ish surfaces.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she won, but I think the other horse is going somewhere.”
Tregea also has Backslapper rated among the top hopes in the Class 3 Plate (Race 5).