Sprinter to turn up at Trentham

Glamour galloper Turn Me Loose might resume in the Telegraph at Trentham next month.

Turn Me Loose has had only one race in New Zealand in the past two years but is expected to have a run at home before beginning another Australian campaign.

No decision has been made on where that run will be but the $250,000 Telegraph (1200m) is probably the obvious option.

“They might go a bit quick for him [in the Telegraph] but we want to give him a run here,” co-trainer Murray Baker said.

Turn Me Loose usually improves with his first-up run and Baker is keen for the horse to have a race before heading to Melbourne for two group one assignments.

The 5-year-old will tackle the Orr Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on February 11, with the Futurity Stakes (1400m) on the same track a fortnight later. He ran fourth when resuming in the Orr last year, before winning the Futurity.

The TAB bookmakers have taken no risks with Turn Me Loose in the early Telegraph market and the Cambridge entire is on the fourth line.

Extravagant is a $6 favourite, with Start Wondering at $8 and Perfect Fit at $10. Turn Me Loose and stablemate Saracino are at $12, along with Riccarton mare First Serve.

Turn Me Loose, who should not be hard to place at stud, has had only 17 starts but has earned more than $1.5 million in stakes and has won three group one races, including two in Australia. He has also been a group two winner on both sides of the Tasman.

“He’s a beautiful horse,” said Baker, who trains in partnership with Andrew Forsman.

Turn Me Loose made a late start to the spring and his two starts at the Melbourne Spring Carnival were over 1100m and 1200m, distances which are short of his best against the premier Australian sprinters.

There just weren’t the right races for him at that stage of the carnival but it got him back in the groove. Murray Baker

“There just weren’t the right races for him at that stage of the carnival but it got him back in the groove and we were really happy with him,” Baker said.

Turn Me Loose will carry 59kg in the Telegraph but will be reasonably well suited by the set weights and penalties.

The Telegraph is also a possible starting point for Saracino’s next campaign and the 3-year-old would be an obvious threat if he started.

The Per Incanto colt has been a dual group two winner over 1200m and won down the straight 1200m course at Flemington in September. “He’s a quick horse and is going well,” Baker said.

The Telegraph will be run at Trentham, on January 21, the same day as the Wellington Cup, for the first time in more than 30 years.

The five horses Baker and Forsman raced at the Melbourne Spring Carnival — Turn Me Loose, Saracino, Highlad, Eleonora and Luna Rossa — will all be back in work by the end of this week.

Highlad and Eleonora are being aimed at the Sydney Autumn Carnival and Highlad is also second favourite for the $1 million Vodafone New Zealand Derby at Ellerslie, though the programme for his next campaign has yet to be finalised.

Baker and Forsman have already won eight group or listed race this term and will be represented by Sewreel and Coldplay in the group two Cal Isuzu Stakes (1600m) at Te Rapa on Saturday.

Promising stayer Lizzie L’Amour will probably tackle the rating 75 2400m at Te Rapa but Baker is also considering nominating the Zabeel mare for the Waikato Cup (2400m). Highly rated 3-year-old Bonneval will resume in a rating 65 1400m.

The stable will also have runners at Ellerslie tomorrow and at Hastings on Thursday.