GOOD potential and a bit of luck – trainer Dean Mirfin is hoping those two factors will combine on Monday at Tyers Park to see his team find success at the Bathurst Thoroughbred Racing meeting.
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Mirfin will have six of his 10 stable members in action and on a day when the mercury is predicted to top 38 degrees, being able to start his horses on their home track is a benefit. Now he just needs some luck in running.
“None of them I would say are standouts or certainties or anything like that, but all the horses that are coming to this meeting should be competitive and if they have some luck, that could bring a good result in for us,” he said.
While Mirfin is confident his runners can be competitive, he still faces one decision on Monday afternoon which could impact the fortune of three of them.
He has nominated Cosmologist, Prince Planet and Keymaster for both the Benchmark 67 Handicap and the Class 2 Handicap, each to be run over 1,300 metres. Which of those two races they will contest remains to be seen.
“There quite similar races, the same distance and the same kind of grading, so either could suit them, so I put them in both,” he said.
“I sat back and waited to see which way the barrier draws went and what the opposition was like and things like that. I’ll make a firm decision right up at the last minute … I have in my mind an idea which way I’ll go, but I’ll wait and see if any other horses get scratched. I’m in a position where I can put them in the best possible race.”
Of that trio, it is Cosmologist who Mirfin rates as the best prospect. A four-year-old Uncle Mo x Skip Along gelding, he is resuming after almost four months in the paddock.
He ended his last campaign with back-to-back wins, saluting at Bathurst and Dubbo, and the jockey who rode him to success in those two races – Eleanor Webster-Hawes – will be in the saddle again.
“They’re pretty similar at the moment, but I think Cosmologist is ultimately the best horse. I think he’ll end up the best horse of the three, but the horse is probably going looking for further than 1,300 metres,” Mirfin said.
“At the moment he is very well suited to a 1,300 when he is nice and fresh first up.”
In the opening race of the meeting, an 1,100m Maiden Plate, Mirfin will have both Go Go Gio and Winterconti in action. Again he rates both as a chance.
“She’s [Go Go Gio] a good little filly, I’m happy with her. She’s progressed nicely and Jamie [Gibbons], my apprentice, he rode her last start and is riding her again. I’m hopeful that she will jump out and really run very well,” Mirfin said.
“Winterconi, she’s probably looking for a little bit further than 1,100 meters, but very nice horse in the making and hopefully she runs well also.”
Mirfin’s other runner is Repentant, who will contest a Benchmark 57 (1,100m).
“Repentant is first-up from a break and she’s working very well on the training tracks. She’s a mare that I’ve always thought prefers a bit of a wet track, she’s not going to get that at the moment, but she has raced well at Bathurst over that distance,” he said.