WILL ICEBATH FREEZE ON EPSOM STAGE?
IS there a horse that deserves to win Saturday’s $1.5m Group 1 Epsom Handicap (1600m) more than Icebath?
She will head to Randwick this week with $2.3m in prizemoney in the bank so it might be hard to feel too sorry for her connections.
But she’s lost two races worth $7.5m and $3m, both in photo finishes, in the past 12 months.
Had she stuck her nose out in the Golden Eagle and Doncaster Mile and won, an extra $3.75m would have been sent her way.
The whole way through however, her trainer Brad Widdup has focused on the positives.
“Nothing is given to you in this game. I don’t know if ‘deserves’ is the word but she’s definitely up to it,” Widdup said. “I can guarantee one thing. This has been a plan for a long time and she’s spot-on.”
Icebath has ran less than two lengths off Private Eye, Chat and Epsom favourite Vangelic in three runs this time in.
But they’ve all been on Goodrated tracks.
It will be a whole different ball game on Saturday if the track is rain-affected and she surely won’t start at her current $9 price in a race that Widdup feels is starting to become as good as the Doncaster Mile.