Chris Svanosio is warning punters not to get too excited about new stable acquisition Sacred Mountain – at least not yet.
Prominent owner Merv Butterworth has flown his trotting mare across the Tasman and placed her with Svanosio ahead of an Australian debut at Melton Entertainment Park on Saturday night, but the Romsey trainer believes she will find the Aldebaran Park Trotters Free For All a difficult assignment.
“She’s only been here a couple of weeks,” Svanosio said. “Obviously she was a good mare in New Zealand for Nicky Chilcott and Merv just brought her over here to see how she goes.
“She arrived in really good order, but this’ll be a very tough test for her first-up. Hopefully she can just run a nice race and there might be some better mares’ races for her in the future.”
Svanosio said the calibre of rivals Sacred Mountain would be meeting on Saturday night – headlined by Harry Stamper, Parisian Artiste and One Over All – meant he wasn’t expecting victory.
“We’re happy with her, she’s come over in very good order, but this is going to be pretty tough racing some really nice free-for-allers,” he said.
“We’re not expecting too much this week, just hoping she can run a good race and keep improving the next few weeks.”
Sacred Mountain won 12 of her 60 starts in New Zealand, headlined by the Group 3 Cambridge Flying Stakes in January. She also ran third to star Australian trotter Aldebaran Zeus when he won the Group 2 Waikato Flying Mile in April last year.
Last-start Victoria Derby champion Petracca will make his long-awaited return to the races at MEP on Saturday night.
The Emma Stewart-trained pacer will be driven by Ryan Sanderson in the TAB We’re On Pace.
Unbeaten stablemate Very Pretty also returns from a break on Saturday night in the Logical Staffing Solutions Pace.
The daughter of American Ideal is shooting for nine-straight wins and is resuming from a last-start triumph in the Group 1 NSW Oaks.
