In Brief
- Limited success for Tasmanian horses in Victoria recently.
- Shot of Irish and Twitchy Frank proven.
- Twitchy Frank an equal favourite at Caulfield.
Two weeks into the cessation of racing in Tasmania, understandably trainers are looking across the water at options for their horses to continue racing.
As reported by Peter Staples during the week, trainers including Scott Brunton, John Blacker and Cameron Thompson have all announced their intent to send horses to Victoria.
“There’s only one way for us to keep our horses race fit and that’s to send or take them to Victoria to race while we are shut down,” Longford based John Blacker said.
The uncertainty around racing’s immediate future across the country however has many trainer’s looking to race their horses while they still can, which is resulting in large fields and extremely competitive racing.
Since the announced shutdown of racing in the state a fortnight ago, Tasmanian horses including White Cliffs ($21), Due Delegance ($6), I’m A Floozy ($3.90), Street Tough ($7) and Needs A Crown ($41) have all headed across Bass Strait to race in Victoria but none have managed to run into the top three.
Certainly, the travel as well as an unfamiliar environment add to the challenge of racing horses away from home and when you include the costs associated, you can quickly surmise that trainer’s face tough decisions on how they handle their horse’s short-term racing plans.
Shot of Irish and Twitchy Frank
Shot of Irish (David Pires) powers his way to an eight-length win on debut.
Two horses that are proven on the mainland have accepted for Caulfield on Saturday and both are given strong chances in the market.
Shot of Irish will race in the care of Richard Laming having moved from Scott Brunton and is a $6.50 chance in the first of the day. The five-year-old gelding has been a midweek Sandown winner and Caulfield placegetter in the past, so punters can gain a line through that form.
In the following race, Adam Trinder has the equal favourite in 2019 Vamos Stakes winner Twitchy Frank who will run over 1400 metres.
The ultra-consistent mare has plenty of proven Victorian form and only needs a repeat of her last start third in the Gold Bracelet at Bendigo to be in the finish.
Elsewhere, Nigel Schurring has accepted Society Bill at both Ararat and Terang on Saturday and Sunday respectively. He was an eye-catching third on debut at the last Hobart meeting on 29 March.