Trainer Joe Cleary has done his best to ensure the handicapper isn’t about to catch up to in-form stayer Hudson County.
Despite winning the Queanbeyan Cup two starts back, Hudson County will be given the most significant test of a career that is just starting to take off when he races at Rosehill on Saturday.
It will be a class test as well as a distance examination for the five-year-old which took 10 starts to win his first race but only six more outings to post a further four victories.
The frontrunner’s most recent win came at midweek level when he gave nothing else a look in for 3kg apprentice Samantha Clenton.
It’s a run of form that is a testament to Cleary’s placement and the trainer will use a junior rider’s allowance again as he puts Hudson County over 2400m for the first time.
“I’ve taken him along nice and steady and he’s whizzed through his classes and sort of beat the handicapper along the way,” Cleary said.
It will be Jess Taylor’s turn to ride on Saturday, ensuring her 3kg claim will bring Hudson County in under the limit 54kg.
“He’s quite an easy horse to ride. He’s very one dimensional and goes to the front in his races,” Cleary said.
If breeding counts for something, Hudson County has a lot in his favour to run out a strong 2400m as a younger brother to the 2005 Queensland Oaks winner Vitesse Dane.
But the opinion of one of the best jockeys in country NSW also gives Cleary enough confidence Hudson County can measure up over an extended distance.
“John Kissick rides him a majority of the time in the bush and he’s always said to me he just feels like he wants to go a mile and a half,” Cleary said.
Hudson County is one of four last-start winners entered for the Rosehill race.
As a fifth placegetter to Mongolian Khan in this year’s ATC Australian Derby and a last-start Canterbury winner, Quick Strike is the best performed of the quartet and the four-year-old has been weighted accordingly with 61kg.
