TALENTED four-year-old mare Arenzano faces her toughest test when she steps out in the $90,000 Listed Newmarket handicap over 1200 metres at The TOTE Racing Centre in Launceston tonight.
The Barry Campbell-trained mare produced a brilliant first-up performance in Launceston two weeks ago by winning a quality handicap over 1100 metres in track record time of 1m.04.11s to better the previous best of 1.04.18 held jointly by stablemates Galibier and Streetwise Savoire.
It was an exceptional performance to defeat Rebel Bride and Jakcorijim, both of which line up in tomorrow night’s Listed sprint.
Arenzano carried the minimum of 54 kilograms to victory last time and she has the same weight tomorrow night but rebel Bride meets her two kilograms better as she had to lug 60 kg last time but drops to 58kg.
Campbell believes Arenzano has improved since her first-up assignment so he expects her to be hard to beat.
“The mare has done exceptionally well since her first-up run and I couldn’t be happier with her going into the race,” Campbell said.
“She has to get an extra 100 metres and Rebel Bride drops in weight so my mare is going to have to be at the top of her game if she is to beat that mare (Rebel Bride) and her stablemate Black ‘N’ Tough is a real good mare so it’s not going to be easy.”
“Blackflash is going extra well and he’s won it before and there are a couple of others down in the weights that have great form. It’s a great race,” he said.
Campbell also will saddle up former Victorian Innocent Gamble that until his last-start blemish had strung together four wins in succession and snared a couple of handy scalps along the way.
Rebel Bride remains the one to beat given her exceptional form over 1200m that includes winning the Group 3 Bow Mistress Trophy for the past two years.
Her stablemate Black ‘N’ Tough has a win over Arenzano to her credit at Devonport in June, just prior to her heading to Melbourne where she won a 1200-metre race at MooneeValley.
Black ‘N’ Tough has since won a trial at Longford and goes into the Newmarket fresh and with a great first-up record of four wins from as many first-up attempts.
If there was to be a boilover it could come from the Bill Ryan-trained mare Sh’bourne Spirit that has won her past four and while stepping up to top class for the first time she has untapped ability and her latest victory in Launceston over this trip (1200m) was awesome.
Preview by Peter Staples.