He hasn’t won for more than a year and Flemington is far from his favourite track.
But trainer Stephen Brown is confident Canali can end a frustrating run of minor placings in Saturday’s Listed ATA/Bob Hoysted Handicap (1000m).
“He’s going as well as he has in a long while,” Brown said.
“His last run was very good and he’s done well – if it wasn’t at Flemington I’d give him a real good chance.”
But with the likelihood of abundant speed and a perfect surface, Brown’s confidence is rising.
Canali has raced once a month in Melbourne since Brown relocated from Darwin to Flemington and at his February appearance he showed the trainer something he’d not seen previously.
“He was taken on in front and in the end he handed up to the First Command and took a sit and then ran on again and finished second,” Brown said.
“He hadn’t really done that before, so I’m hoping it puts him into the race tomorrow.
“I’m pretty sure he’s better around turns because he rails so well and can skip away, but there’s no real reason why he should have such an ordinary record down the straight.”
Brown is Canali’s second trainer having begun his racing life with Bart Cummings in Sydney.
Some astute observation on Brown’s part attracted him to the horse who failed to win a race with his celebrated first trainer.
“I used to watch him working when Bart had him and they used to test a lot of their good ones against him because he was so fast,” he said.
“After a while I picked up that he wasn’t handling the Sydney way of going, so when the chance came to get hold of him I was pretty pleased.”
Canali won in Adelaide at his first two starts for Brown before transferring to Darwin where he won two more and then landed a decent plunge when he scored over 1000m at Ascot in Perth.
The well-travelled galloper has also won at Moonee Valley and Caulfield,but has failed in five runs at Flemington.
With certain speed from the likes of Karuta Queen and Fab Fevola, Canali has the chance to use his new-found sit-and-sprint skills to advantage.
“He’s got that bad record here, but this looks like it could be his sort of race,” Brown said.
