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Noonan optimistic about 3YO

Tony Noonan’s Mr Optimistic is among a host of Spring Carnival hopes kicking off their campaigns when racing returns to the turf track at Racing.com Park on Wednesday.

The Mornington trainer has a good opinion of the talented three-year-old, throwing in early nominations for Group 1 features like the Caulfield Guineas and Cox Plate.

Mr Optimistic finished third in the Listed Bruce McLachlan Memorial Classic (1200m) on the Sunshine Coast last start and has form around the likes of Jameka and Lazumba.

“I hope he’s come back real good but I won’t know that until Wednesday,” Noonan said.

“There’s plenty that are dreaming – it’s pie in the sky sort of stuff – but he’s only had limited racing and looks a promising horse.

“He’s had some time in Sydney where he was going to run in the Run to the Rose but unfortunately we had to scratch him because he had a bit of a cough but now he’s in really good order.”

Mr Optimistic is the top-weight for the Polytrack 3YO BM64 Handicap (1200m) with gun apprentice Michael Dee taking the ride from barrier five.

It’s a hugely strong race with the likes of Faatinah (David Hayes and Tom Dabernig) and Mr Individual (Leon and Troy Corstens) also going around.

“I’d expect him to be hard to beat,” Noonan said.

“He’s going to improve with the run and he’s going to be better placed when he gets over more of a trip.”

To view the field, click here.

News from Racing.com

Noonan hopes Mr Optimistic shows his class

A good performance from promising colt Mr Optimistic in the Run To The Rose will be enough to convince trainer Tony Noonan to tackle the Group One Golden Rose.

But Noonan said it would take a supreme optimist to believe Mr Optimistic could win the 1200m Group Two feature at Rosehill on Saturday.

Mr Optimistic will take on the Chris Waller-trained duo Japonisme and Press Statement, as well as Godolphin pair Exosphere and Holler.

“There are some nice horses in it that are better credentialled than him,” Noonan said.

“The horse is going to measure up at some stage, but this is nice race that will test him out.”

While Noonan has a high opinion of Mr Optimistic (pictured below as a yearling), he says he wants to see him match it with top-class horses before he looks to the $1 million Golden Rose.

BE POSITIVE X DOMESDAY 12 027

“He’s such a raw type of animal and it’s hard to evaluate those horses sometimes,” he said.

After a Queensland winter carnival campaign which included a Listed placing, Noonan opted to spell Mr Optimistic in the winter sunshine.

“Years ago the great Victorian trainers used to race horses in Queensland during the carnival and then send them for a spell up there,” Noonan said.

“Over 25 years, all the good horses I’ve trained have got to Queensland and they normally come back better horses.”

Multiple Group One winner Ortensia is just one of the Noonan-trained former stars to have enjoyed a Queensland winter.

Mr Optimistic is the first foal from another Noonan-trained Group winner, Be Positive.

“Some of the people that were involved in Be Positive kept the mare and bred the horse, so there will be a pretty good crew there on Saturday,” he said.

Just Horseracing

Wild About Harry…

With three second placed efforts so far this time in, all were confident that Wide Acclaim, affectionately known as Harry, would break his maiden anytime now.. and that day was Tuesday when the two-year-old contested Race 2: Farrar Legal 2YO C& G Maiden Plate over 1100m.

Team Hawkes saddled up race day favourite Elemenohpee who had had three barrier trials winning all three including defeating Sir Bacchus, the other Laurel Oak runner in the race on Tuesday.

Ridden by Winona Costin, the Gary Portelli-trained Wide Acclaim started the second favourite in the race and from barrier five jumped away well before being restrained and allowed to drift to a mid-filed position.

Sir Bacchus, who had the inside gate was slowly away and settled with only a few runners behind him.

At the 700m mark Wide Acclaim had pulled himself out of the pack and was travelling in three wide position without cover.

Continuing on his forward path, Wide Acclaim found himself hitting the lead at the top of the straight, while the race favourite Elemenohpee was trying to find a gap to set out after Wide Acclaim.

But the son of Congrats had too much on the race favourite as he continued to pull away for an impressive two-and-a-quarter length victory. To view the race win, click the below image.

Wide Acclaim win

Sir Bacchus worked home solidly to finishing fifth and with the run acting as an educational experience, trainer Chis Waller is confident he will return a much stronger 3yo.

Racing for a large group of owners; Laurel Oak Bloodstock Pty Ltd, Mr M B Sandblom, Grant Bloodstock Pty Ltd, Mr C P Keane, Mr N Macdonald, Mr B Carlstein, Club Dryden Sydney, Mr R R Cocks, Mr J Racovalis, Mr J V Camilleri, Mr G L Barker, Mrs K A Fraser, Mr R A Wise, Mr K Macdonald, Mr M J Baumann, Mr D A Russell, the Magic Millions Yearling Sale purchase from the draft of Vinery Stud has recorded five top three placed finishes from six starts to date and the manner in which he won suggest a horse with a bright future!

NSW Benchmark Chanages And ‘Highway” Races

In the past few days, Racing NSW has announced some significant changes to the Benchmark system, as well as a number of initiatives to improve the competitiveness of country-performed horses.

The changes are designed to increase field sizes in Sydney, which have for a long time been way too small. These changes are particularly pleasing to me personally because racing horses regularly in both country and city NSW, we have understood the reasons why metropolitan fields have been so small for so long, and years of lobbying have proven to be very frustrating. Having the opportunity to contribute in a non-official capacity to a consultative process that took place early this year and came up with a raft of recommendations, it is pleasing that many of our suggestions have now become policy. For the sake of racing in NSW, I hope they work!

Without going into fuller detail, the key changes are an increase to the minimum top weight in benchmark races from 59kg to 61kg, with the minimum staying at 54kg. This means that in any given benchmark race, the range of horses that can compete at their correct handicap weight now has a 7kg or 14 benchmark points spread, rather than 5kg or 10 benchmark points. While that may not seem a lot, it is a 40% increase in the available pool of correctly-handicapped horses, so it has to have a natural flow-on benefit to field sizes.

Due to the increased weight that horses will be regularly asked to carry, changes have been introduced to allow apprentices to keep their claims longer, which will give trainers more opportunities to use apprentices and reduce the actual weight to be carried by the horses.

In NSW, metropolitan fields have for some years been drawn exclusively from metropolitan-trained horses. This is simply because country-performed horses were at a huge disadvantage when competing against metropolitan-performed counterparts under the benchmark system. In a simplistic example, a horse may win three races at a country centre like
Taree or Moruya, and be penalised four points for each win. Suddenly, after, say, three wins and a few placings after ten career starts, a handy bush horse has a benchmark rating of 70.

Meanwhile back in the city, a horse may win a provincial maiden and then a midweek race, and throw in a few placings, and it, too, gets penalised four points for each win. However it may now be on a benchmark rating of 66 because it has won two races only compared to the country winner’s three races, even though the former has earned much more prizemoney. So when the country horse came to town for a benchmark 70 midweek race, it would be carrying 59kg under the benchmark handicapping system, while the provincial/metro winner was carrying only 57kg, despite being a far superior horse and having earned more prizemoney. The latter would start near favourite and perform accordingly, while the former would start at 50/1, and invariably perform accordingly.

So in time country horses simply stopped coming to the city as they had little or no chance to be competitive. While I have been pushing this barrow for some years now, because it has been so obvious, there are now finally some rules in place that will hopefully make country-performed horses competitive again against their city-performed counterparts. The key to the changes are that the handicapper now has discretion to alter the weight of a horse moving from the country to the city, or vice versa, from its standard benchmark-linked handicap.

In our example above, if the Taree/Moruya winner now comes to the city, the handicapper has the discretion to give it up to a 6kg weight relief. While we will now see to what extent this will be applied, the reality is that that horse is now much more likely to be carrying 54kg when it comes to town, rather than 59kg. What this will do is make country-performed horses more competitive in the city, which will have the flow-on benefit of more country-performed horses actually coming to the city to have a go because of the greater likelihood that they will be competitive.

Similarly when the 66-rated provincial/city winner went to the country, it wasn’t penalised in any way under the current system, so it invariably started short-priced favourite and stifled betting, because its form was so superior, and it was so generously handicapped. Now the handicapper has the discretion to penalise those horses heading from the city to the country several kilos to give the locals much more chance of remaining competitive.

Further, Racing NSW has announced the introduction of “highway” races. Starting from December, there will become a ninth race on Sydney Saturday race programs run for midweek prizemoney, and exclusively for country-trained horses. This is another huge filip for country-trained horses to help boost their earning potential and indeed give their connections the opportunity of enjoying an exciting day in Sydney.

There are other nuances to the changes, but they are the key points. Racing NSW will review the impact of the changes after six months.

News from Louis

Rebel ready to rediscover best after op

Gary Portelli hopes what appears to been a successful throat operation will see Rebel Dane rediscover his best form this Spring Racing Carnival.

The Group 1 winner, who turns six next week, has not started since finishing among the tail in the All Aged Stakes on 18 April, after which it was discovered his breathing capacity had been severely impacted.

“We scoped him the next day and his throat was completely paralysed,” Portelli told racing.com’s Racing Ahead on RSN.

“He’s always been a thick-winded horse, he’s always had not the best wind and he’s always made noise, but you can’t really operate on their throat until the larynx is completely paralysed.

“He’s a stallion, so he’s very hard to scope, but we got him scoped the next day and his throat wasn’t working at all.

“He only got beaten three lengths twice in Group 1 races and I think they said he only had about 30 per cent of his airway working under full pressure, so hopefully the op looks at this stage it’s pretty successful.”

The All Aged Stakes followed a sixth placing – beaten 2.9 lengths – in the William Reid Stakes at Moonee Valley, while he was beaten less than half a length in two Group 1 races – the Moir Stakes and Manikato Stakes – at the Valley last spring.

Rebel_Dane_160213_7812

Portelli said the son of California Dane did some three-quarter pace work down the straight at trackwork on Tuesday morning and feedback was positive.

“He’s always been a horse that has made a little bit of noise in his work and there was no noise at all today,” he said.

“Hopefully we’re seeing him right back to his brilliant best and if his airway is working better he may even get a little further,” Portelli.

Despite that, Portelli is keeping his spring options open with the galloper who has not won since snaring the Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes in September 2013.

“We got him scoped yesterday by my vet and he’s very happy with the way the throat looks, so that gave him more confidence as to what sort of work I should be doing,” he said.

“He’s right to do some fast work, so we thought we’d probably give him another three to four weeks of work and then obviously we’d know where he is fitness-wise and what race will be available at that point.

“But I’m not setting him for anything because I just want to watch him come along steadily.”

To listen to a radio interview with Rebl Dane’s trainer Gary Portelli and RSN’s Shane Anderson, click here.

News from Brad Bishop, Racing.com

Timely victory for Arctic Dream

While the temperature might have been a little ‘Arctic’ at Echuca on Tuesday, it was a ‘Dream’ result for her owners as four-year-old mare Arctic Dream broke her maiden status.

Having finished third last time out over 1580m, the step up to the 2100m of the Betfair Murray Mallee Winter Stayers Series Heat 5 really aided the Peter Morgan and Craig Widdison-trained mare.

From the outside barrier in the field of 12, jockey Billy Egan took the mare forward where she sat on the outside of Speed ‘N’ Reef.

A mid-race move came from back in the pack as Gold A Plenty charged around the field to try and wrestle the lead from Speed ‘N’ Reef.

As the field rounded the home turn, Gold A Plenty had got the better of the race leader, and began to assert his superiority and was pulling away from the field.

Having enjoyed a good trail just behind the leaders, Arctic Dream began to make her move and with about 20m to go she got her head in front to record a half-length win, breaking her maiden.

Arctic Dream Win

To view a replay of the gutsy performance, click here.

Set to head to stud this season, it was a great to get a win on the board for the well-related daughter of Sebring, as she is also a half-sister to the Group 2-winning, Group 1 placed Hallowell Belle (Starcraft) as well the Group 3-winning Fuddle Dee Duddle (Red Ransom), all daughters of the Beautiful Crown mare Bella Inez, herself a full-sister to the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas winner In Top Swing.

Congratulations to all fellow owners on the win of the well-bred mare; Mr M B Christian, Mr B Johnson, Mr B G Christian, Mr R H Soussa, Maniana, Mr A N Fitzgerald, S & K Dean, Mr M W Bristow, Dr P D Braude, Ms J Marretta, Mr D A Russell and Mrs R C Fitzgerald.

Triple Treat For Harry…

While we all love to highlight success, we are confident that ‘Harry’ will make the grade in the coming weeks after recording her third consecutive second placed finish this time in!

Wide Acclaim as he is officially known, returned from a spell to finish second over 1000m at Kembla Grange on June 16, before finishing in the same position just over two weeks later when stepped up to the 1100m at Hawkesbury.

Starting race favourite at Kembla on Tuesday, Wide Acclaim was ridden by leading jockey Blake Shinn and after settling down in third position in the run where upon entering the home straight looked a live chance of taking the win.

With the race favourite, the well-spruiked Egyptian Symbol still in front of him, Wide Acclaim was doing a few things wrong but still set out after the leader.

Narrowing the margin to a half-neck on the line, it was a great effort from Harry and we are confident that it won’t be too long before the son of Vinery stallion Congrats finds himself crossing the line in front!

Harry 2nd

To view his run from Tuesday, click here.

With five runs under his belt for four placed effort, Wide Acclaim, will slightly frustrating, is proving to trainer Gary Portelli that he is at least consistent.

Purchased from the draft of Vinery Stud at the 2014 Magic Millions Yearling Sale, Wide Acclaim is out of the Hussonet mare Dirty, a winner of the Listed BTC Vo Rogue Plate during her career.

Congrats to fellow the fellow owners in Harry and we hope to be writing about his maiden win in the coming weeks!