Mark Newnham and Tyler Schiller will be hoping lighting strikes twice when they combine with A Very Fine Red in Saturday’s The Warra (1000m) at Kembla Grange.
The $300,000 event will be run seven days after Newnham and Schiller combined to win another race of that value, The Beauford at Newcastle, with King Frankel.
They have been rare opportunities to claim in races that carry Group 2 prizemoney and Newnham is keen to make the most of it.
“It worked last week, Tyler rode King Frankel in a similar prizemoney race and we were able to take advantage of his claim, so we’ll look to do it again,” Newnham said.
Schiller will claim 1kg of his available 1.5kg allowance and ride A Very Fine Red at 51.5kg.
A Very Fine Red heads in to The Warra off a seventh placing behind Asfoora at Flemington on Derby Day, but the start prior was a narrow winner of the Listed Alinghi Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield.
“She probably wasn’t suited down the straight last start when she got crowded up, because she’s a mare that likes a bit of room,” Newnham said.
After the scratching of Our Bellagio Miss from The Warra, A Very Fine Red comes into barrier seven, which is to the immediate inside of Newnham’s other The Warra runner, Dragonstone.
A winner of the Listed June Stakes (1100m) to round out last campaign, Dragonstone has finished fifth at his two runs this preparation – in the Group 2 Caulfield Sprint (1000m) and the Choisir Stakes (1100m) – but Newnham said he had excuses on both occasions and this was his spring goal.
“I thought the track at Randwick on Cup Day was just too firm, it got to a Good 3 and they ran very fast time from the front and despite him running very good sectionals he was never going to be able to pick them up,” Newnham said.
“He just didn’t get around Caulfield first-up, so third-up and very fit, this is a suitable race for him
“This has been the goal right from the start of the preparation,” he said.
Dragonstone will be ridden by Tom Sherry in The Warra.
