Trainer Brendan McShane is hoping a rise in distance will enable his smart two-year-old Keep The Cash to turn the tables on favourite Western Hero in Saturday’s $50,000 Tasmanian Sires Produce at Mowbray.
Western Hero proved a little too nippy for Keep The Cash in the $30,000 Autumn Classic over 1200 metres at Elwick a fortnight ago but they have an extra 200m to negotiate in the final feature race of the season.
“It’s going to suit my horse – he’ll definitely run 1400m on his ear,” McShane said.
After winning twice on dead tracks, Keep The Cash stepped out on wet ground for the first time in the Autumn Classic and, according to McShane, took a while to find his feet.
“He looked lost for the first 9/10ths of the race,” the trainer said.
“Darren (Gauci) said that it wasn’t that he didn’t like the soft going but it was very new to him and he raced with his head on the side until near the home turn. Then he had to get into his gears. My instructions to Darren were to keep Western Hero in sight, which he did, but when it came time to accelerate, Western Hero sprinted quicker than him. Keep The Cash then ducked in but, when he reached the firmer part of the track in the last 100m, he really got going. I thought it was a very good run. If you could change the way things happened, he might have won _ but that’s history now.”
Gauci gave McShane a good report on the gelding after the race.
“He said that we could take him to Melbourne now if we wanted to,” the trainer said.
“He’s very strong but he’s still learning. Looking to the future, I think we’ll see a pretty good horse.”
Keep The Cash was bred by McShane’s second cousin Gerard McShane who has had success in recent years with Secdolrue and Secuma.
“Gerard bought his mother Cash Stash at a breeze-up sale in Melbourne,” the trainer explained.
“She won two races then he bred her to Keep The Faith on the recommendation of a pedigree consultant in Victoria.”
Courtesy
Examiner Newspaper