Frustrated trainer takes gamble he can’t win

Joe Pride will run Gamblestown reluctantly at Randwick and says Destiny’s Kiss is also likely to be beaten the next time he starts the stable stalwart.

The trainer is frustrated on two fronts ahead of Saturday’s relocated meeting from his home base at Warwick Farm.

He says out-of-form Gamblestown’s chances to snap a losing streak stretching back more than two years have been diminished further by the transfer of Saturday’s meeting from Warwick Farm to Randwick because of predicted high temperatures.

Racing NSW opted to switch venues with the temperature forecast to reach 41 degrees at Warwick Farm with Randwick several degrees lower.

“Don’t we have enough meetings at Randwick and Rosehill?” Pride said.

“If you have some variety it gives another set of horses a chance doesn’t it?”

Pride said Jay Ford had no hope of saluting after the Benchmark 85 Handicap (1600m) given Gamblestown has only one minor placing to show from 10 starts at Randwick.

“He’s no chance. He’s got a very poor record there but I have to run him to keep him ticking over,” Pride said.

Pride is also frustrated with Racing NSW handicappers, saying their benchmark rating for nine-year-old Destiny’s Kiss defies logic.

The nine-year-old shouldered top weight (61kg) on an unfavourable good track to finish third in the Listed Tattersall Club Cup (2400m) at Randwick on New Year’s Day, but that sterling effort still irked Pride.

“The rain didn’t arrive and the handicapper still hasn’t dropped him so he’s got more of the same problems for his next start,” he said.

“It’s amazing. He’s a 107 (benchmark). Terravista is a 111 and he gets two kilos in a handicap.

“Terravista has won two Group Ones and Destiny’s Kiss has never performed in anything other than a Listed race.

“He’s stepping out and he can’t win. The punters knew it. He was five’s out to 12s. If he wasn’t such a gallant horse he wouldn’t have run as well as he did,” Pride said.

“I can’t see how he is being fairly treated. He spent most of the last two years being about a 103. You can’t tell me that as a nine-year-old that he’s the best he’s ever been. It’s ridiculous. It frustrates me.”