An outside draw and aggressive tactics brought Your Song undone in the Doomben 10,000 but Peter Robl is confident the colt can redeem himself in Saturday’s Stradbroke Handicap.
A brilliant winner of the BTC Cup with Robl aboard two starts ago, Your Song has drawn barrier 11 in Saturday’s Group One sprint.
It is a reasonable draw in its own right but has been made even better by the fate of several fancied runners, including favourite Sizzling, who drew outside barriers.
“I thought it was a good draw and he comes in a couple if the emergencies don’t get a run,” Robl said.
“Our barrier has been made even better with Sizzling, Better Than Ever and Epaulette drawing 18, 19 and 22.”
Your Song started favourite in the Doomben 10,000 but sooled forward from the outside alley by Hugh Bowman he engaged in a speed battle and weakened to finish sixth to Epaulette.
Epaulette made the most of a good draw and hot tempo in that race to post a dashing win and despite the troubling gate on Saturday, jockey Kerrin McEvoy is staying upbeat.
“He’s a get-back horse and we’ve just got to try to slot in around some chances,” McEvoy said.
“Hopefully with the right sort of run he can still be finishing as strongly as he did last time.”
Your Song firmed into joint favouritism with Sizzling after Wednesday’s draw at $4.60 with Epaulette easing to $7.50 and Better Than Ready $9.
