Fire King backed to bring the heat

LEADING trainer Olivia Cairns has paid her pony-sized marvel Fire King the ultimate compliment going into the $105,000 Audi Centre Townsville Northern Jewel QTIS 3YO (1300m) at Cluden Park.

Cairns, who has won cups and major sprints from Rockhampton to Cairns, rates Fire King as the bravest young horse she has trained since the brilliant Sea Zulu almost 15 years ago.

“Fire King is just a little horse but he’s all heart,” Cairns said. “I put him up there with Sea Zulu, who won a Cleveland Bay Handicap as a three-yearold and won it again the following year. He’s so small but he has the same will to win.

“They don’t do what he’s done unless they have that will to win.”

Fire King, a half-brother to the smart Last Chance, goes into Friday’s feature with six wins and 15 placings from 24 starts and just shy of $200,000 in prizemoney.

He rounded out his preparation for the big race with a cracking last start win on May 10 at his Mackay home track.

Fire King will carry top weight with 61kg with two of his biggest dangers, the Rockhampton-trained Isis Carmella and Palencia.

Yes Dream, unbeaten in four starts, will carry 58.5kg

The Kevin Miller-trained Isis Carmella, who has a good fresh record (2: 1-1) will go into the Jewel first-up on the back of two barrier trials.

Isis Carmella has won six of her 10 starts including a dominant win as a two-year-old at Cluden beating Fire King in August last year.

Yes Dream and last season’s top two-year-old Palencia go into the race in peak form and meet again after their epic clash in April when a nose separated them. Trainer Michael Lee has gambled with a month between runs for Yes Dream to avoid more weight.