A dry track and plenty of speed is on trainer Kane St Vincent’s wish list for grand campaigner The Jackal in Saturday’s Gold Coast Stakes.
St Vincent is hoping fine weather will continue to dry out the Gold Coast track enough to suit the requirements of The Jackal who struggles on rain-affected surfaces.
“He’s won on a dead five and a dead four a couple of times but I would prefer him to be on top of the ground,” St Vincent said.
“They reckon it’s a slow six now and will get to a dead five on raceday which makes him a bit of risk in that sort of going.”
The other factor St Vincent says The Jackal needs is plenty of speed to ensure he doesn’t pull hard.
“For him to perform at his best it’s just a matter of having a good speed on but, in saying that, he’s won a Prime Minister’s Cup there when there wasn’t much of a tempo up front,” he said.
“On that occasion he ended up leading four deep and kept going because he’s such a talented horse.”
Just when it appeared the 10-year-old was headed for retirement, the dual Ramornie Handicap winner shouldered 62.5kg to a comfortable win at Quirindi on February 22, his first since an Eagle Farm victory in January 2011.
“We were tickled pink because he’d been out of the winning list for so long and it was back near our home town and he’s always been a favourite down there,” St Vincent said.
“It was definitely a big drop in grade from what he’d been racing against but he was up in weight and he put them away very quickly.
“We’re rapt to keep him going and if he didn’t perform in that race at Quirindi he was going to be retired but he obviously had other plans.”
Bought by St Vincent’s father Paul for only $20,000 at the 2004 Magic Millions sales, The Jackal has earned more than $1 million in prize money including dual Ramornie Handicap wins in 2007-08.
St Vincent is hoping the gelding’s form this campaign will be strong enough to make another attempt at winning this year’s Ramornie.
