Duo’s distance query
TRAINING partners Steve O’Dea and Matt Hoysted will take a two-pronged attack to Ipswich on Saturday but have small distance queries on both their runners – for different reasons.
Impressive colt Tumbler Ridge lines up in the TL Cooney 3YO (1350m) boasting wins in two of his last three starts and a fourth behind Private
Eye in the Group 2 Queensland Guineas, which has since proved to be a hot form race.
Hoysted has no doubt the colt can take out the $105,000 race at Ipswich but admits one small fly in the ointment could be that he is only stepping up 50m from his win in the $200,000 Gold Jewel at Doomben.
“He sprinted really well fresh off a break the other day, but the only marginal little query might be that he goes up only 50m on Saturday and he is a horse that probably wants the mile,” Hoysted said.
“But we have left him a touch on the fresh side to counteract that and he has drawn a good barrier.
“The horse couldn’t be going any better, it’s not a race with a huge amount of depth.
“We have always had a really good opinion of him, he probably just had a busy sort of two-year-old year.
“He has really come back a much better horse.”
Tumbler Ridge is one of the fancied picks, at $4.20, while sprinter Kylease will race in the Gai Waterhouse Classic (1200m) as a $19 chance after drawing wide (16).
While Tumbler Ridge would ideally like his race over a bit further distance, Kylease could be out of petrol tickets at the end of 1200m.
But Hoysted said Kylease, a speed machine, had learned to settle better in the mid section of her races.