WEDNESDAY 18th FEBRUARY – WARWICK FARM
Rail Position: +5m 1000m-W/Post, +3m Remainder
ROSIE ROUGE (Race 1, 2.20pm, 1100m, T Clark, 55kg)
Rosie Rouge is delighting us ahead of her first start. Her two trials this time in have been most encouraging, and she took good improvement from her first one to win her most recent outing at Rosehill in good style. She’s still working it all out, but importantly she has a terrific attitude and pulls out more when challenged which is a positive sign ahead of raceday. Warwick Farm is expansive and inviting, so it’s a very fair track for her to debut at. She’s drawn to the outside in barrier 9, so Tim will be positive from there to try and work forwards because it’s certainly an advantage to have a rail to follow as an inexperienced two year old. She’ll take huge improvement from whatever she does here, but the ability is there and this is a lovely starting point for her so we expect her to be right there at the finish.
CONCHIERO (Race 3, 3.30pm, 1400m, R Bayliss, 59kg)
Conchiero resumed with a terrific effort to finish second at this track earlier this month. He’s come through the outing in great order, and he’s thriving ahead of this second-up run. The step up to 1400 metres is an obvious positive that’s going to suit him down to the ground, and whilst barrier 17 isn’t ideal Regan will let him find his feet and roll forward from there to try and get across to secure a more favourable position on or near the head of affairs. He finds himself in another competitive maiden, which you’d expect for the money on offer, but he’s firing on all cylinders and we expect him to be fighting out the finish once again.
ANGEL DOWN (Race 6, 5.15pm, 1400m, J Parr, 59kg)
Angel Down is pleasing us ahead of her second-up run. 1100 metres first-up was never going to play to her strengths but with limited options available, it was a means to an end because it acted as a steppingstone to this race second-up. 1400 metres is still short of her optimum trip, but it’s certainly a lot more suitable and we expect her to travel closer to the speed and a lot more comfortably in the run as a result. Josh will be positive from barrier 6 so that he’s not dictated to by other runners, and if she can get into a good rhythm we expect her to close off strongly and be much more competitive on this occasion.
THURSDAY 19th FEBRUARY – WARWICK FARM
Rail Position: True
SUPREME STATEMENT (Race 2, 1.55pm, 1400m, T Clark, 58.5kg)
Supreme Statement is pleasing us ahead of this second-up run. He showed speed to lead in his trials, so it was a bit of a surprise that he struggled to lay up with the leaders when resuming at Warwick Farm. He was caught a bit flat-footed when they kicked on that occasion, but he kept staying on well to the line and he’s taken good improvement from it so he strips fitter here. The step up to 1400 metres is an obvious positive that’s going to suit him, and he should be able to settle in a more prominent position so Tim will go forward from barrier 9 to try and do just that. We’ve applied blinkers to sharpen him up as he’s quite a casual customer, so there are plenty of reasons to suggest he’s capable of improving here and we expect him to be right there at the finish.