Young trainer Ben Currie had the best day of his career at Toowoomba a fortnight ago and hopes to translate that into further stakes success at Doomben.
At 26, Currie is one of the youngest trainers in Queensland but he has already prepared more than 300 winners.
The Toowoomba-based Currie had a treble on his home track’s biggest day of the year including a dead heat win with Col ‘N’ Lil in the feature Weetwood Handicap.
On Saturday, Currie will saddle Col “N’ Lil and another of his three Toowoomba winners, Cantbuybetter, in the Listed Tails Stakes (1600m).
He feels the better of his two chances will be Cantbuybetter who finally had some luck after running into trouble at several starts earlier in his campaign.
“He won his first four starts for us and then had some niggling problems which meant he lost his way a bit for a year or so,” Currie said.
“But he really should be unbeaten for us this campaign. He won first-up and then at his next start his saddle slipped. Then we took him to Brisbane for an open handicap at Doomben and just about everyone agreed he was a certainty beaten.”
“Cantbuybetter won his next start at Toowoomba and he carried 59.5 kilos and sat deep the whole way. It really was a good win.”
“This Saturday Cantbuybetter has the minimum 54 (kg) with top jockey Jeff Lloyd. I also think 1600 metres is his best distance so I would be disappointed if he didn’t race well.”
Col ‘N’ Lil is one of Currie’s favourite horses but he thinks she faces a task second-up on Saturday.
“I’m not saying she can’t win. But she is going from 1200 metres in the Weetwood to 1600 second-up in the Tails,” Currie said.
“It is just the way the races have worked out. She isn’t very big but she is all heart.”
Currie said he had plenty of options with Col ‘N’ Lil in the winter carnival.
“We will just have to wait and see what comes and how strong the fields turn out. Perhaps, the Brisbane Cup is an option but then there are plenty of fillies and mares races around as well,” he said.
Currie will also have Girl In A Million in the Two-Year-Old Hcp (1050m) and has added a tongue tie to her raceday gear.
Girl In A million was a heavily backed favourite when she ran second last on Weetwood Day.
“She is better than that and we will try to ride her off the pace on Saturday,” Currie said.
