SANDOWN PARTY ABOUT TO START
Duo’s first time at track
INFUSED with belief that his fairytale filly won’t necessarily be facing any standout two-year-olds, Damien Batters and Party For Two will both rock up at Sandown for the first time on game day.
The Queensland filly is arguably the most intriguing runner in Australia on Saturday as the filly with two thumping wins in the Sunshine State tangles with the big names in the Group 2 Blue Diamond Prelude (fillies).
Incredibly, neither Batters nor his filly will have sighted Sandown before they arrive at the course on Saturday.
The Melbourne Racing Club offered Batters the chance to gallop his filly on the course proper earlier in the week, but he declined.
He has wanted to keep things as normal as possible for Party For Two, stabling her with Greg Eurell at Cranbourne and working her on the synthetic training track there.
“I haven’t been to Sandown before and neither has the filly,” Batters said.
“She hasn’t had a gallop at Sandown because I have just wanted to keep everything similar to what she had been doing in Queensland. She has done her main pieces of work at Cranbourne on the poly (synthetic) track as that’s what we work her on when she is at home on the Sunshine Coast. I just wanted to keep it simple, nothing out of the ordinary and not floating her too far away.
“Saturday will also be the first time I have ever been to Sandown.”
Party For Two is rated a $14 chance to continue her winning run which has seen her produce 7.5 length and 2.5 length wins at the Sunshine Coast and Doomben respectively.
The $300,000 Sandown race is the opportunity of a lifetime for Batters.
His filly could potentially frank her credentials for the Group 1 Blue Diamond.
“There are normally some standout two-year-olds every season but I don’t think there has been this season, even though Tony Gollan has a lovely filly (Gold Coast Magic Millions winner Skirt The Law),” Batters said.
“I just think it’s a pretty fair playing field for two-year-olds this season.”
Nikita Beriman will ride Party For Two.