It’s testing time for Tumbler in Victory
will run,” Lockwood said. “It’s a great opportunity for her and getting black type is the name of the game.”
Tumbler has become a punters’ pin-up, winning six of her seven starts and she’s more than halved her opening quote of $10, backed into $4.80 with UBET yesterday.
“I guess it’s the nature of the beast when a horse keeps winning like she does, they always have good support,” Lockwood said.
“But this is easily the biggest step she’s ever had to take. I just hope she’s up to it.”
Since switching to 1200m, eight of the 10 runnings of the Victory (formerly Sir Byrne Hart) Stakes have been won by locally trained runners and punters have gambled on that record improving.
In addition to Tumbler, the other market mover has been the Rob Heathcote-trained Hopfgarten.
The market is wary of Music Magnate and Takedown, clearly the two best performed runners, but both are coming off last-start failures on wet tracks in Sydney.
Music Magnate has since won a trial by a big space and is holding his place as the $2.40 favourite.
Confidence in Hopfgarten has been boosted after a workout this week.
Hopfgarten was one of 16 horses who worked on the course proper on Tuesday and was one of the few to handle the controversial surface well.
“Everyone agreed he was probably the best worker on the track. He handled it perfectly,” Heathcote said.
Heathcote has won the Victory Stakes twice in 2011 and 2013 with his champion sprinter Buffering who also won a version of the race 2012.
“The Saturday meeting was washed out and they put on the Victory Stakes on the Wednesday with half the prizemoney and renamed it the Coca-Cola,” Heathcote said.
“Buffering won that race by seven lengths with Jim Byrne riding him.”
Like Buffering, Hopfgarten is by noted wet-track sire Mossman. The surface was in the soft range yesterday. BOLD Kingston has been behaving like a new horse after a recent upset win and trainer John Zielke says he is ready to spring another surprise at Eagle Farm today.
The two-year-old takes on two of the most highly rated young horses in Queensland, Snitzkraft and Ours To Keep, in the Listed Dalrello Stakes (1200m).
The gelding was backed from $21 to $12 before winning a good standard two-year-old race at Doomben two weeks ago.
Zielke said he could see a marked change in Bold Kingston’s attitude since the win.
“He is a different horse and seems to have matured,” Zielke said.
“He has a lot more confidence. One thing he will have to his advantage will be having a run under his belt.”