Rain Affair’s first-up failure hasn’t stopped the sprinter being installed favourite for the Group Two Shorts at Randwick on Saturday.
The Joe Pride-trained gelding turned in arguably the worst performance of his career at Warwick Farm when he was beaten 4-1/4-lengths into fourth as the $1.50 favourite in the Concorde Stakes (1100m).
The five-year-old winner of 11 of his 16 starts gets the chance to bounce back in the Shorts (1200m) for which he opened the $3.50 favourite with TAB fixed odds in a quality field of 17.
Regular partner Corey Brown missed the Concorde Stakes through suspension but is hoping to see the real Rain Affair turn up on Saturday.
“Obviously everyone walked away scratching their heads after the other day,” Brown said.
“He pulled up a tiny bit muscle sore which is not out of the ordinary but they couldn’t find any problems.
“Joe has said he has come right on since that run. The old Rain Affair, the one that we’ve seen before last start, is a super-competitive horse and it was totally out of character how he raced the other day.
“So if he’s back to his old self he’ll be hard to beat.
“But I’m just hoping at this point.”
Brown watched the Concorde Stakes and knew the natural speedster was in trouble before the turn when the pressure was being applied to him.
“He’s better than that, we know that,” Brown said.
“His trials had been much better than that, so hopefully he just had one of those off days and he bounces back.”
Stablemate Tiger Tees, who won the Concorde, is not among Rain Affair’s rivals on Saturday but the field includes Group One winner Manawanui, the Gai Waterhouse-trained Nobby Snip and the Tim Martin-trained Pampelonne in a competitive line-up.
