On a day where Eagle Farm will play host to a number of short priced favourites, Steve O’Dea and Matt Hoysted will saddle two of the horses punters will be pinning their hopes in.
Shooting For Gold resumes against older horses in the Benchmark 80 Handicap (1000m, Race 7), while Kingston’s Here sticks to his own age in the third event on the card.
TAB has the pair marked $2.40 and $2.10 respectively at this stage.
Both have been “works in progress” according to Hoysted, but the stable has maintained both will go through their grades and measure up to be potential carnival horses later on.
Shooting For Gold has won four of his eight starts and is showing signs now he is ready to live up to his true potential.
“He’s finally starting to mentally mature. He seems to have chilled out and mellowed a bit more now,” Hoysted said.
“He’s a really exciting horse going forward. Last preparation he showed his quality winning the Winning Rupert, then his last two runs, Millions Day and the week before, bad barriers were to his demise.
“He’s had a really nice spell, come back in really good order.
“He’ had a jumpout and a trial going into this and he’s as forward as we can have him.
“He’s a sharp worker and it was no exception (Tuesday). The horse couldn’t be going any better.
“We want to pick our way through the grades. Summer carnival we can really see him in some of these better races. It’s a matter of keeping his confidence up and go through his grades.”
Kingston’s Here is the winner of two from five and arrives off a cavalier first up four lengths win on the Gold Coast.
Hoysted said Kingston’s Here had shown a tendency to lug out last preparation, so they have tried to counter that by being more positive on him out of the barriers this time around.
“He led both his trials and he led up at the Gold Coast and was really dynamic,” Hoysted said.
“We will try and do the same (on Saturday). Try and ride him positive.
“He’s had three weeks between runs and we’ve been able to get a bit of work into him. He looks fantastic and he’s right up to the mark for Saturday.
“With each run he keeps improving.”
