Richards less than bullish on Abbadean

Defending champion Our Abbadean will need to produce something like last year’s Travis Stakes form today to seal a Queensland campaign.

But trainer Jamie Richards is hopeful more than confident.

Our Abbadean won the Travis last year after five strong lead-up runs, mostly over comparable distances, but goes into today’s feature with just one 1600m run this campaign. And that was a poor second last in the Breeders Stakes at Te Aroha.

She will need to improve enormously on that today to defend her title and if she does she could head to Brisbane for the winter.

But while Richards is willing to forgive the last-start failure he isn’t getting carried away today.

“She was chasing all the way last start because they went a solid 1600m and she wasn’t ready for that,” he admits.

“But she has worked well since and it will bring her on.

“I think the race suits her but I also think Supera will be very, very hard to beat and looks the better bet, if I was thinking more like a punter than a trainer.

“So our mare is good enough to win but it is hard to be as confident with her as we were this time last year.”