STAR Tasmanian pacer Beautide will contest a trial at Menangle today fort what will be take two of his return to the racetrack.
Beautide was meant to trial at Menangle last week but his trainer-driver James Rattray fell ill on the morning of the trial which forced the horse to be scratched.
However, Rattray has fully recovered and he said the horse should give a good account in his trial over 1609 metres today starting from the outside barrier (7).
“Missing last week’s trial won’t have any impact on the horse’s preparation it just means he’ll have one less trial before his first race early next month,” Rattray said.
“He is being aimed at the Miracle Mile so he will have at least a couple of starts before he gets there but all indications are that he might improve on what we saw last preparation,” he said.
Beautide will go around in the second trial today at 4 pm in which he will have strong opposition from the John Tapp-trained Chariot King that hasn’t raced for two months and The Gold Ace that has had one run back from a lengthy spell.
The interesting runner in the trial is Off The Cuff Lombo that hasn’t raced since December 2011 when trained in Western Australia but now resides at the Shane Tritton stables
Beautide is odds-on to win this season’s Horse of the Year title given he snared the Miracle Mile-Inter Dominion double as well as closing his season with victory in the Len Smith Mile.
The gelding, bred and raised in Tasmania at Barrie Rattray’s Karalta Pacing Stables, has won 40 of his 64 starts with 15 minor placings helping his career earnings to almost $1.4 million with most of that accrued this season.