Weather’s the key to edge for Jungle
POPULAR gelding Jungle Edge is set to pass $1 million in prizemoney when he returns to Queensland and he could also be a surprise starter in an unlikely race on the Gold Coast as part of his winter campaign.
The weather will dictate the bookmakers’ price for Jungle Edge in the Group 2 Victory Stakes (1200m) at Doomben on Saturday because on a wet track he will be close to favourite, and on the dry double-figure odds.
The Doomben surface was in the soft range yesterday, with some showers predicted later in the week.
Jungle Edge has won 13 races and they have all been on wet tracks.
He has $934,000 in the bank and there is $122,000 on offer to the Victory Stakes winner on Saturday.
Victorian trainer Mick Bell summed up Jungle Edge perfectly as he prepared to float the gelding from Sydney to the Gold Coast yesterday.
“On a heavy track he is a Group 1 horse but on a good track he is Group 3 horse,” Bell said.
Brisbane racegoers know exactly what Bell is talking about because last winter Jungle Edge won the Group 3 BRC Sprint and was second in the Group 1 Kingsford Smith, both on heavy tracks.
“I reckon there were two horses which handled Eagle Farm and he was one of them. Then they switched the Stradbroke to Doomben and it was a hard track, and he was well beaten,” Bell said.
Jungle Edge has been racing in Sydney where he finished a surprise second to Redzel in the Challenge Stakes (1000m) on a good track at Randwick on March 10.
But he was then well beaten in the Group 1 The Galaxy (1100m) and Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes (1200m).
“The weather deserted us in Sydney,” Bell said.
“I think it was the first relatively dry autumn in Sydney for years, which was exactly what we didn’t want.
“It will be the same in Brisbane. He is there for the Group 1 10,000, Kingsford Smith and Stradbroke but I won’t be running him on a rock-hard track.”
Bell said the weather played such a key part in Jungle Edge’s campaigns he might even back him up in the Bat Out Of Hell (900m) at the Coast on Saturday week.
“I am not saying he will run in it but if rain arrives on the Gold Coast he can back up over 900m every week,” Bell said.
ON A HEAVY TRACK HE IS A GROUP 1 HORSE BUT ON A GOOD TRACK HE IS GROUP 3 HORSE
TRAINER MICK BELL