Warrnambool trainer Aaron Purcell almost left Caulfield on Boxing Day with a winning double from his gallopers Kazio and Takumi and he believes they again will be to the fore at Flemington.
Markets also reflect this with both Takumi and Kazio high up in the betting on Saturday.
Takumi is a $5.50 chance with TAB fixed odds to win the Benchmark 78 over 2000 metres and Kazio is a $8 chance to win the 1400 metres Benchmark 84.
At Caulfield, the pair almost landed a double for Purcell with Takumi winning and Kazio finishing second to Never Again where he was beaten by a nose and the trainer believes they both will go close again.
Purcell said he had deliberately missed the spring to concentrate on the Benchmark races in the city over summer.
“Look at tomorrow.They are both in benchmark races which carry prizemoney of $125,000 and $135,000 so it’s more than worthwhile to have horses in at this time of the year,” Purcell said.
Takumi is another northern hemisphere galloper which Purcell has purchased for Australian racing and he looks like following in the successful footsteps of horses such as Guizot and Swacadelic.
“He’s in pretty good form. He showed a lot early bit things didn’t work out. He’s since acclimatised and he’s racing well,” he said
“He needs a few things to go his way but he’s not a bad little competitor and he should get to better races but we’ll work through the ratings with him.”
Kazio has had eight starts for Purcell since joining his team from the Colin Little stable for two seconds and two thirds.
“He hasn’t run a bad race for us and his form from last start through Never Again is good,” he said.
“He likes the speed on. He’s in good physical shape.”
