Olympus the mount to be on in Guineas

WARWICK Farm trainer Mark Newnham has bigger fish to fry in the Doomben 10,000 but in the meantime feels he can make an early mark on the Queensland Winter Carnival with versatile galloper Lord Olympus in the Group 3 Gold Coast Guineas.

Newnham is preparing sprinter Splintex for a 10,000 mission on Saturday week but is confident about his chances of striking on the Gold Coast today with a three-year-old gelding who came from last to score a powerful win last start at Doomben.

Lord Olympus only narrowly dodged major trouble in the Mick Dittman Plate when Simply Fly threw off Stephanie Thornton not long after the start. Newnham (left) was watching on TV in Sydney and almost turned away, thinking he had no hope with Lord Olympus in last place and struggling to keep up. But, under a precise ride from Michael Cahill, the gelding surged late and just arrived on the line to win, also having to fend off a bite from runnerup Zingalong.

Lord Olympus is the equal $5 favourite for Saturday’s Gold Coast Guineas (1200m) and Newnham thinks he can do the job, despite racing on the tight Coast track for the first time.

“He has raced at a lot of different tracks already, for a horse who hasn’t had that many runs,” Newnham said.

“He has won on the Kensington track, he has won at Canterbury, he has run at Hawkesbury and won and Kembla and Newcastle.

“He goes in all sorts of ground and doesn’t mind what track he is racing at.

“I think he will be hard to beat in the Guineas.”