The speed will be on from go to whoa in the 1200m Quest for Success Stampede on Saturday night and Geoff Webster hopes his hope Motu Gatecrasher will be charging home fastest.
The Bannockburn trainer said he was looking forward to the “one-lap dash” – which is wedged between four Group races in what promises to be a cracking night’s racing at Tabcorp Park Melton – as the versatile six-year-old could “sit on the speed and still get home good”.
“He’s a high-speed horse, that’s why I put him in (The Stampede) as I thought it would suit him,” Webster said.
“He’s drawn a bit wide, which could be a bit of an issue, but his best runs have been when he has been off the pace.
“Being a one-lap dash, it will be an interesting case of whether we can make ground from the back of the field … I don’t know.”
The Stampede has been an annual feature on the Victorian trots calendar since 2004, with the Lance Justice-trained Coastal – who won the race in 2010 and 2011 – holding the 1200m Melton mile rate record of 1:48.1, a gross time of 80.6 seconds.
“They always seem to get good fields and it is an open-type race,” Webster said.
“It has been on for a few years now and the trainers and the betting public don’t seem to mind it.”
Webster’s night won’t just hinge on Motu Gatecrasher – he also has Beach Garden in the Group 3 Allied Express Jodies Babe and Majestic Cruiser in the Group 2 City of Melton Plate.
He said Beach Garden “should be quite competitive” in the 1720m mares-only feature, where she has drawn inside the second row.
“She’s a nice honest mare; she’s just had a couple of weeks off so she should be nice and fresh,” he said.
“She has performed well against those types of horses previously and it is a perfect draw for her as well, she should get a good trail on the pegs and that’s the best spot for her.”
Webster said Majestic Cruiser would acquit himself well against a strong field of four and five-year-olds from the pole over 2240m.
“I probably got a bit cheeky putting him in against those sort of horses but I was hoping for a good draw and we got it,” he said.
“From his work at home and races he is a nice handy forward-looking horse. Maybe he can’t win it but he will definitely be not too far away from them.”
