Three days, two countries and six rides in feature races.
Top jockey Hugh Bowman is poised for a big weekend and it all starts at the Scone carnival on Friday.
Bowman will partner Illo for Chris Waller in the Listed Scone Cup on the opening day before backing up for five rides on Saturday, three of them in feature races.
The top jockey is then booked on a flight to Singapore early the next morning to partner Bel Sprinter in the KrisFlyer International Sprint and Mawingo in the Singapore Airlines International Cup.
It will be a flying visit but one Bowman is confident Bel Sprinter can make worthwhile.
“I’ve got three rides over there. Bel Sprinter is obviously the headline horse and I think he will go really well,” Bowman said.
The Saturday meeting at Scone might not offer the prestige of the International card at Singapore but it does boast five Listed races, along with the $500,000 Inglis Guineas (1400m).
The Guineas doesn’t have black type status but its prize money has ensured a good field.
Bowman will ride the Bart Cummings-trained Lunar Rise, a Group Three winner at Flemington during the spring carnival last year who has disappointed in three runs this campaign.
“There’s no doubt about his ability. It’s a winnable race on his best form,” Bowman said.
“But the cold, hard truth is he has been racing below par.”
Cummings has addressed the indifferent form by making a key gear change.
He has taken the blinkers off Lunar Rise, trialling him successfully in winkers which he will wear on Saturday.
Cummings’s grandson and foreman, James Cummings, said early indications were that the adjustment had had the desired effect.
“We loved the way the horse took confidence from his trial, he has been bouncing out of his skin since,” Cummings said.
“He worked on the course proper (Tuesday) morning and he worked to the line nicely. He had a twinkle in his eye.”
Lunar Rise is a $10 chance with TAB fixed odds which has the unbeaten Missy Cummings as the $4.20 top pick.
The favourite’s trainer and owner Anthony Cummings confirmed on Thursday he had sold Missy Cummings for an undisclosed amount to her breeder, Dorrington Farm’s Robert Crabtree.
She will still take her place at Scone.
