Weather is the biggest concern for co-trainer Wayne Hawkes as star colt All Too Hard powers towards his third-straight Group One win in Saturday’s Australian Guineas.
All Too Hard is in great shape and holds a clear class edge in the $500,000 feature but any significant downpours before Saturday’s Flemington feature could force the Hawkes team to “re-assess the situation”.
Flemington has received 26mm of rain this week, including 7mm overnight, which was a concern for Hawkes when he fronted media after trackwork on Thursday.
“I wouldn’t want it to rain any more,” he said.
“If it kept raining and the track ended up heavy we’d have to question whether we’d even be going.”
Flemington was officially rated in the dead range late on Thursday which is good news for fans of the star colt but not for the 15 that are down to run against the $1.33 favourite.
All Too Hard has continued to emerge out of the shadow of his champion half-sister Black Caviar and has stamped himself as one of Australian racing’s brightest stars with Group One weight-for-age wins against in the C F Orr Stakes and Futurity Stakes.
His win last weekend in the Futurity was arguably his best.
“He started off as Black Caviar’s little brother but he’s fast building his own cult following,” Hawkes said.
“If he keeps doing what he did last Saturday and keeps blowing them away, it will only get stronger.”
The three-year-old gets the chance to join Mahogany as a winner of the Caulfield Guineas in the spring and Australian Guineas in the autumn.
Victory would also be an achievement for Hall of Fame trainer John Hawkes, who now trains in partnership with his sons Wayne and Michael.
John Hawkes has won more than 100 Group One races but is yet to win an Australian Guineas.
“The Guineas is a great race, and we’ve never won the (Australian) Guineas,” his son said.
“There’s not too many on the Australian calendar the Hawkes name hasn’t won. This is certainly one of them.
“It’s always special to win a big race for the first time, but we’re just trying to keep All Too Hard’s record intact.”
While he acknowledged All Too Hard gets in so well at level weights against his own age – he is 21 handicapper points higher than his nearest rival – the trainer is not taking anything for granted.
The colt has barrier 14 in a capacity field.
“It’s not like Dwayne Dunn is going to get a soft run. There’s going to be 15 other blokes out there looking for him,” the co-trainer said.
