Written by Georgie Dennis
The Listed Carrington S. at Randwick on Saturday will be the only black-type race run in Australia this weekend and the 1400 metre event will see a number of geldings go head-to-head in the $150,000 race.
Randwick-based trainer John Thompson will line-up Deep Field 4-year-old Chat, who hasn’t been beaten more than 2l in four starts since his last win at Canterbury back in September.
At his most recent start in the Listed Christmas Classic, Chat finished just 1.4l behind subsequent R. Listed Magic Millions Cup winner Eleven Eleven (Fastnet Rock) and Thompson believes that form holds him in good stead for Saturday’s race.
“He had a month off before the race against Eleven Eleven and he didn’t have much luck in that run,” Thompson told TDN AusNZ.
“He worked to the line nicely, he pretty much followed Eleven Eleven the whole way. Him and Discharged came out of that race and ran well last week at the Gold Coast and franked the form.
“I think my horse has improved a lot out of that run fitness-wise, he’s a big gross horse, and tomorrow’s race looks like a nice race for him.” - John Thompson
“I think my horse has improved a lot out of that run fitness-wise, he’s a big gross horse, and tomorrow’s race looks like a nice race for him.”
Drawn barrier five, Thompson is hopeful Chat and jockey Robbie Dolan will be able to use that to their advantage and not have to settle at the tail of the field as he did last start.
“I’d like to see him box-seated, just behind the speed,” Thompson said.
Prior to his run in the Christmas Classic, Chat took on stakes company on two other occasions when he finished second in the Listed Canberra Guineas and eighth in the G3 Hawkesbury Guineas.
Having worked his way through the grades across the last year, Thompson was keen to test Chat in stakes company again this summer, but he hasn’t made any plans to raise the bar higher from Saturday.
“He’s always shown promise, he’s gone through his grades nicely and he’s just going well enough to give him a crack at stakes level,” the trainer said.
“We’ll just see how he goes tomorrow and we’ll go from there.”
Bounce back
Meanwhile, Mark Newnham is hoping to return his dual stakes winner Quackerjack (Not A Single Doubt) to the winner’s stall in Saturday’s Carrington S. and despite him having to carry the top-weight of 59kgs and drawing the outside barrier, the trainer believes he is still in with a winning chance.
“It’s a nice race for him to bounce back to form,” Newnham told TDN AusNZ. “For the first time in his career, he didn’t have a good preparation in the spring and he probably had a hard first-up run and I think it affected him for his next couple of starts."
Quackerjack also contested the Christmas Classic and while he finished eighth in the 10-horse field, he was still only 2.6l off the winner Eleven Eleven.
“His first-up run at Canterbury was good at an unsuitable distance. He hadn’t been back to 1200 metres since he was a 2-year-old in the Magic Millions, so pretty much three years since he’d been back at 1200.
“He maintained his position throughout (in the Christmas Classic), where he started mainly where he finished, and he was only beaten about 2.5l, but the form out of the race has been good with Eleven Eleven and Discharged running well at the Gold Coast, so I thought his run was acceptable and second-up at 1400 metres on his favourite track is a good formula for him.”
Quackerjack (yellow and red silks)
Quackerjack has drawn barrier 10 of 10 for Saturday’s race but with a long straight before the first turn from the 1400 metre start at Randwick, Newnham doesn’t think the barrier is anything to be concerned about.
“He’s a horse that dominates from the front and from the 1400 metre start, being drawn wide is not a huge disadvantage and it’s not a big field so I’d expect that he’ll more than likely be up in the lead and that’s when he runs his best races,” he said.
After a fruitful summer campaign 12 months ago which saw Quackerjack secure wins in the G2 Villiers S. and G3 Liverpool City Cup, he then went on to contest the G1 Doncaster H. where he finished down the field in 18th.
Newnham said if he does run well or win on Saturday, he will aim slightly lower this autumn as he doesn’t think he is quite up to the elite-level of horses.
“I wouldn’t think he’d be good enough to go to another Doncaster,” Newnham said. “He’s just short of those best horses so if we look around the edges there, back to maybe the Liverpool City Cup again or the Newcastle Newmarket, those types of races.
“Those Group 3s or maybe a Group 2, anywhere around those races are suitable for him but he’s not quite a Group 1 horse.”
