Apprentices have been making their mark on Sydney winter racing and trainer Keith Dryden hopes Andrew Adkins can continue the trend on Chosen Prayer at Warwick Farm.
Premiership leader Rory Hutchings will ride on Wednesday as a fully fledged jockey while second-placed Koby Jennings still has a few months left of his indentures.
Hutchings leads Jennings 33-19 with 14 meetings left this season while a winner at Canterbury on Monday has taken Adkins to 16, equal third with the injured Winona Costin.
Adkins, who is with Ron Quinton, still claims three kilograms which will bring the Dryden-trained Chosen Prayer, topweight in the benchmark 71 (1400m), down to 57kg.
“She is going along nicely,” Dryden said.
“She has handled soft tracks before she came to me but they haven’t missed her with the weight so the three-kilo claim will certainly help.”
Chosen Prayer came to Dryden from the Joe Pride stable and has had two second placings and a sixth at Randwick from her three starts for the Canberra trainer.
“It was a strong midweek mares’ race at Randwick and she wasn’t too far away,” Dryden said.
Adkins has five scheduled rides at Warwick Farm including Gold Torque for Quinton while Jennings has three.
Dryden, meanwhile, will decide after Ziganui gallops on Wednesday morning whether he will back him up from his heavy track win at Canberra on Friday in the Highway Handicap at Rosehill.
“I’ll see how he pulls up after I work him whether he goes to Rosehill on Saturday,” Dryden said.
“He is racing well but there haven’t been any easy runs among them.”
Ziganui’s past five starts have netted two wins on rain-affected tracks, two thirds and a fourth in a Highway Handicap at Rosehill on May 21.
