Classy Victorian trotting mare Im Ready Jet is on trial for a New Zealand raid when she returns to racing at Melton on Saturday night.
The eight-year-old’s owner-breeder Pat Driscoll has a slot in the $NZ600,000 TAB Trot at Cambridge on April 4, but Im Ready Jet will need to convince he and trainer Andy Gath is she worthy of the trip.
Gath revealed last Saturday night’s impressive Group 1 Menangle winner, Keayang Chucky, was on standby to take the slot if Im Ready Jet didn’t impress this week.
“She’ll get her chance and she deserves that,” Gath said. “She trialled quite well last week and it seems to have brought her on, her work this morning (Tuesday) was terrific.
“I just wish she’d drawn better this week. Inside the back row (gate eight), will make it tricky.
“She doesn’t have to win, but it’s a long way to go and it will be a strong race, so she’ll need to run very well this week for us to take her.
“I did speak to the Keayang Chucky crew about possibly taking Pat’s slot after he won at Menangle. We’d certainly offer the slot to them if we decided against taking Im Ready Jet, but let’s get through this weekend first.”
Im Ready Jet has won 26 races and $714,950, but hasn’t raced since an eighth at Melton on November 16, last year.
The TAB Trot is on the same night as the $NZ1mil Race by Betcha at Cambridge and earlier this week Gath pulled his stable star, Catch A Wave, out of that race to focus on the $1.25mil Nullarbor at Perth’s Gloucester Park on April 25 instead.
“What we do with Im Ready Jet and Pat’s slot will just continue the jigsaw we’ve been working through,” Gath laughed.
“I’m happy with where we’ve landed with Catch A Wave. He’s better suited to the Nullarbor, given he won the race last year, and we were able to move quickly and get Tact McLeod to take the slot Catch A Wave’s owners (the Matthews family) have in the Cambridge race.
“Now I’ll know after this weekend whether we have a runner at all at Cambridge.”
Gath revealed Catch A Wave, an eight-time Group 1, “tied-up” when last in the Miracle Mile won by Don Hugo at Menangle last weekend.
“It explains why he didn’t finish a bit closer, but he had no chance from back where he was the way the race was run,” he said.
“I don’t think any horse really improved its position at all from the middle half of the race to finish, they just ran home too quickly up front.
“I was going to run Catch A Wave in the Stampede at Melton next week, but now he’s not going to Cambridge, we’ve got an extra three weeks, so I’ll give him an easy time then look for some lead-up options.”
Catch A Wave famously won the big Nullarbor/Fremantle double at Gloucester Park last year.
Gath is also preparing for more travel with recent stable addition My Ultimate Barney, who has his first start for the barn in the last race at Melton on Saturday night.
“It’s a harder race than we expected to strike first-up with Forty Love and the in-form Calexico amongst the rivals, but he needs a run before heading to Bathurst for the three-year-old series up there,” he said.
My Ultimate Barney, formerly trained by Jarrod Alchin in NSW, raced 11 times last season for six wins and three seconds, one of those seconds was in the Bathurst Gold 2YO final.