It could be an exciting afternoon for Jarrod Austin, with two progressive three-year-old’s racing within 15 minutes of each other on Wednesday.
The Warwick Farm-based trainer will see Dawn Flight go around at Kensington in the Admire Mars At Arrowfield Handicap (1300m) quickly followed by Remus in the Tursa Grafton Guineas (1600m).
Remus has made an impressive start to his career, placing third on debut before winning his last two starts, most recently at Hawkesbury by two lengths.
Austin said gelding the three-year-old has made all the difference.
“As a colt he just didn’t have his mind on the job to be honest,” he said.
“It just took him a long time to come around and work out what the whole racing thing was about.
“It wasn’t until we took him out for his first start at Hawkesbury there that he switched on a little bit that day, he was very green, but he got a lot of confidence out of that.
“He’s gone from strength to strength for us since then.
“He’s travelling really well, I’m really happy with how he’s progressed through his preparation.
“This will be his last run; we’ll take him up to Grafton but he’s still firing on all cylinders so I’m expecting a really good effort from him.’
Dawn Flight is also new to the racing caper, having just five starts in her career thus far.
She notched up her second win with a tough on-pace performance at Kembla Grange in her most recent outing.
The daughter of Fighting Sun was also nominated for the Grafton Guineas, but Austin has decided to keep her at the shorter trip.
“She can want to get out and running and dominate a little bit, that’s probably the main reason we steered away from the mile straight away,” he said.
“We just thought that keeping her back one more run would help her.
“I’ve got no doubt she’ll eventually get out over a mile, but at this stage we just thought it was a safer option for her to run here in town.
“We’ve got a bit of a plan for her going forward, there’s a couple of Saturday races that we would like to try and target with her before she turns four.
“She’s a progressive little filly too. Her work the whole way through this preparation has been top notch, so we’ve been really eager to get her going.”
Remus has been backed from $8.50 into $5.00 for the Grafton Guineas, while Dawn Flight is a $26 chance for her assignment at Kensington with tab.com.au.
Article from JustHorseRacing.com.au
