While many are dissecting the gate speed of Saturday’s Pryde’s EasiFeed Victoria Cup combatants, the early burn will also hold huge ramifications in the night’s feature trot, the Aldebaran Park Bill Collins Sprint.
Brilliant mares Dance Craze and Red Hot Tooth are set to jostle early, separated only by flying filly Pink Galahs, who will be searching for her own avenue to a Group 1 victory.
Kari Males, trainer of Red Hot Tooth, said the camp was “very happy” with their gate three draw, with only Dance Craze (gate one) and Pink Galahs (gate two) inside her, providing the emergency Cruisin Around doesn’t get a start.
“Over that distance, (leading)’s the only plan really,” Males told SENTrack. “If you ask her to come out, she will come out pretty quick.”
VICTORIA CUP: PICK YOUR FIRST 5 AND WIN!
While Dance Craze has the pace to more than match, Anton Golino’s mare has at times broken gait when ripped off the gate, a vulnerability Red Hot Tooth’s reinswoman Kerryn Manning will likely test early.
“I’d love to get to the front. You know you’d have (Dance Craze) on your back, I’d imagine Pink Galahs will be trying to get in there somewhere to get a nice run too, because we know it has super high speed.
“And the other one is Wobelee. Well if we can cross Dance Craze that puts Wobelee back on the pegs and probably makes it a bit trickier for him.
“You can go over it a million times and get different answers every time, but ideally over the short if we can just get to the front, you know you’ve got your horse right for the day and you just do your best and hopefully she’s good enough.”
Either way, Males said her seven-year-old was well placed for another bold showing.
“Can’t fault her work,” she said. “Through maturity she’s got used to that tough, Group 1 class racing, she’s keeping her top line so she can sustain her good runs a lot more.
“And she’s probably got a lot tougher. She may have lost a little bit of high speed, but saying that she can still reel off a pretty quick quarter.”
CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE FULL SENTRACK INTERVIEW:
More on the Pryde’s EasiFeed Victoria Cup night:
>> Lochinvar Art draws 4, Craig Cross 5 on front row
>> Picture clearer or hazier post-draw?
>> Bill Collins: Mares hold the cards in Group 1 sprint draw
