THE Sale Turf Club's second September meeting this Thursday is one full of interest.
It is the club's final meeting before the Sale Cup on Sunday, October 25.
Nominations were taken across eight races with Lee Freedman, the leading trainer at Sale for the 2008-9 season, holding a couple of aces in multiple events.
In the three-year-old fillies maiden over 1406m, Freedman's filly Pirouette comes off an unplaced run in the Lindsay Park Guineas in Adelaide at her most recent outing. However, she'd finished full of gusto when runner-up in maiden grade at Geelong in her previous start and the similar class on Thursday will be to her advantage.
The winner at Geelong, Golden Portrait, has subsequently won again, so there's lots to like about Pirouette on Thursday.
Freedman has trained a winner at each of the three meetings so far conducted at Greenwattle this season and he has topweight Dancefloor Prodigy resuming in the Class 1 handicap (1106m). However, the son of Redoute's Choice has 59kg and it may pay to look for value in this race.
Testy Girl was posted wide but ran away stylishly over the final stages to score by over three lengths in maiden grade at Pakenham recently, while Chuckawheely also caught the eye at the same meeting. From a wide gate at Pakenham, Chuckawheely stood them up too big a start and he'll be suited by the spacious long straight at Sale.
Oronero is a horse who also enjoys the wide, open spaces at Greenwattle, the five-year-old gelding entered for the Rating 72 Handicap over 1406m.
The horse has had three starts at Sale for two wins and a second and actually won a Rating 68 (1515m) at this same meeting twelve months ago. Two of his past three starts have been in town, so Oronero is well placed to return to the winners list on Thursday.
Sky Devil led throughout to claim the major prize at Sale on August 20, the John McArdle-trained gelding a two-time winner on the track. He's also coming back in class on Thursday after a fourth at Sandown and a second at Geelong in his past two starts.
Local mare Skybee steps up in distance to the 2217m of the Country Showcase rating 68, the Cliff Murray-trained mare rarely turns in a poor performance on her home track. However, both of her wins have been achieved over 1710m, so the extra trip is a query.
John Moloney's mare Comocean looks a safe each-way bet in this event.
The Country Showcase Class 1 handicap (1706m) is a pretty difficult affair, and it's hard to split Grail Jeuney and Indite.
Hailing from the John Hawkes stable, Grail Jeuney caught the eye with a fast finishing fifth at Rosehill earlier this month and his previous form suggests he's found the right race on Thursday.
Indite is a lightly-raced Zabeel four-year-old owned by Lloyd Williams and prepared by John Sadler and worked home nicely when produced fresh here on Ladies' Day, September 13.
In other races on the programme, local trainer Paul Worthington again lines up Elkayel in a maiden over 1708m, the six-year-old nosed out of first prize at Sale at the September 13 meeting. Hardest to beat in this race should be El Salvino and Great Player, the latter is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
A four-year-old by Galileo and trained by Barry Barnes at Cranbourne, Great Player made his debut at Pakenham on September 14 and after getting way out of his ground, finished on the heels of the place-getters over 1300m. The rise in distance to 1706m will suit perfectly and Great Player is the horse Elkayel has to beat.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter