Unbiased view’s a winner
TAMWORTH trainer Glenn Morgan believes there’s plenty of fight left in his muchtravelled warrior Unbiased ahead of Friday’s $85,000 Townsville Cup.
Morgan is back for a second tilt at the Cup after the eightyear-old’s fighting second to The Harovian last year.
Like two grey nomads, Morgan hitched the horse trailer to the car in June and took off to the warmer climates of North Queensland for his annual Cups assault.
He has run Unbiased in the all-important lead-up runs and believes the gelding is ready to peak in the city’s biggest race despite carrying a topweight of 59kg.
“Unbiased has such a high rating in NSW that he’s very hard to place. Apart from the Tamworth and Scone Cups he’s pretty much weighted out of races back home and he’s not Saturday class in Sydney,” Morgan said.
“Last year we came up for the Rocky, Mackay, Townsville and d Cairns carnivals and we ennj o y e d the city, y, the peoople and nd the lifeestyle so much we wanted d to come me back.
“We’v ’v e delibberately built him up slowly this year in set weights races so we don’t overtax him and have him right to peak on C Cup Day.”
U n - bi biased reco corded his la last win o v e r 20 2000m in T o w n s - vi ville in Ju July last ye year, just a week be before his se second in the Cup to The Harovian.
He showed he was on track for another big effort this year with a strong third in a Cup lead up over 2000m five weeks ago and a slashing third over 1400m behind Silent Explorer last week.
“He hasn’t won a race for over a year, but I thought his last run over 1400m was very good and he will strip a lot fitter for the cup,” Morgan said.
“He ran a very smart last 600m and on that he wouldn’t have looked out of place in a 1200m race.
“Brad Pengelly has ridden him in his last couple of runs and wanted to stay with him.
“He’ll be very competitive, but there’s a lot of horses around the same level and it’ll be a tough race.”
The eight-year-old Darley gelding is expected to be an early favourite as the betting markets open for the Townsville Cup.
Morgan has also nominated two other chances for the day with lightly raced six-year-old Holy Command in the Cleveland Bay Handicap and Isilmo in the Class 4 Handicap over 1400m.