BORDER Rebel and Prussian Secret trialled together in impressive fashion at Tamworth on Saturday afternoon in preparation for Brisbane and Tamworth Cup tilts.
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The Sue Grills-trained Border Rebel won the 1000m trial by a half length from the Cody Morgan owned-and-trained Prussian Secret, stopping the clock at 59.04secs.
Both trainers were delighted with the efforts.
“That was a nice easy trial,” Grills said.
“We’ll hopefully go back to Brisbane next week and try to win the Hinkler a third time. He’s won the last two,” she said of a Listed 1200m race.
“He’s fairly forward but needed that to cap him off.”
She had initially thought about running him in Brisbane on Saturday in the Bribie Handicap but thought the track might be too hard for him.
“The forecast was for dry weather but then it pelted down and they had a heavy track. I can’t take a trick.”
Border Rebel loves rain- affected going.
She thought the fact Prussian Secret kept with her sprint star helped him as well, making him race without getting too carried away.
Ben Looker rode Prussian Secret and couldn’t have been any more impressed.
“He’d win a six furlongs race in Brisbane on that effort,” the Tamworth Cup-winning jockey told Morgan. “He’s flying.”
Morgan is hoping the trial will be just the right lead-in to a Tamworth Cup with a galloper who has won multiple country cups but coming back from a leg operation.
“I can’t get my hopes up,” Morgan said.
“There’s still a bit of heat in those legs. I can only hope he stands up.”
He’s also following a Tamworth Cup regime he learned from “the master” Craig Martin, who almost won a Tamworth Cup with Beat That a few years back.
Tamworth trainer Mark Mason is also looking for a Tamworth Cup day appearance with Emperor Gaze in Armidale today.
The six-year-old gelding has drawn well and done well enough to win today’s McDonald’s Armidale Open Handicap (1300m) according to Mason, although rain could dampen that chance.
“He’s going at this stage,” Mason said on Saturday.
“As long as we don’t get any rain.”
He was interested to know the Armidale Jockey Club has been watering the track heavily too, according to Armidale trainer Frank Tanner.
“It’s very dry up home,” Tanner said.
“Jimmy (Armidale secretary Jim Dedes) has been pouring the water into the track and it’s just been gobbling it up, it’s that dry.”
Emperor Gaze is a last-start winner, successful in a 1200m Gunnedah Class 2 on March 10, and gunning for a fifth career win today.
While it is an open company race, Mason is confident the six-year-old gelding son of Intergaze will be competitive.
“He met three quarters of this field at Gunnedah,” he said.
He has booked Peter Graham to ride a gelding he thinks can win a nice race somewhere along the way.
He was thinking about a Tamworth Cup but knows he wouldn’t get a run.
“There’s a Benchmark 65 on Cup day but he will get a big weight in that,” he said.
“Up at Armidale he’s in on the minimum (54) and a good chance.”
