BATHURST trainer Peter Stanley has been given a lifeline for the $300,000 Country Championships Final this Saturday at Royal Randwick after his mare Hollywood Nell was handed a start in the lucrative race.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
One Last Poet finished second to Binalong Road in the Bathurst heat of the series last month and Hollywood Nell finished third, after Stanley’s well-backed star King Derota was scratched just before the start of the race.
After racing last week in Dubbo and finishing fourth, trainer Brett Thompson made the decision to scratch One Last Poet from the final, meaning Hollywood Nell became the automatic replacement provided she was up to it.
Stanley had no hesitation in accepting the opportunity.
It meant that by Sunday, he could have had two runners in the decider if King Derota could have taken his chance in the Championships Wildcard race at Muswellbrook.
He wasn’t able to do it, finishing a distant 13th to Artlee ($4.40), but the good news for Stanley was another of his runners, Trent’s Quest, saluted at the juicy odds of $70.70 in the final race of the meeting.
“It was just a bit too far in between races in his preparation for King Derota. He’d been running every fortnight and had to wait five or six weeks for this run,” the trainer explained.
“He got to the front at the top of the straight and I thought ‘here he comes’, but they swallowed him up pretty quickly and it just didn’t pan out for him.
“He was pretty unlucky with how it all happened, really, starting from the scratching. But we’ve definitely got a run now, which is great, and I think we have a bit of a chance of doing well.”
Prior to the Bathurst heat, Stanley did point out that at a light weight he felt Hollywood Nell could be a contender.
“I genuinely think we’re a chance of a top five or a placing. We’ll put the blinkers on her – she’s been working in them and I think it will just switch her off a bit come race time,” he said.
“She’s run up to 1800 metres before comfortably, and on that track down there I think the 1400 will feel more like about 1600 on the big long straight, so that works in her favour, I think.
“I’ve made it my business to try and follow all the other heats and have a good look at the competition.
“I think Binalong Road was very good in Bathurst, but Brett Kavanagh’s runner, Loved Up, it looked fantastic to me and it is the one who shines brightest in my eyes.
“It is disappointing not to have King Derota in there after the heat and the wildcard race, but we came away from Muswellbrook pretty happy with Trent’s Quest getting that win.
“He was at pretty good odds and I had a bit of a dabble on him. I always have faith in my own horses.”
