A forecast for rain in Sydney later this week is music to the ears of two of Rosehill’s newest residents as Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr prepare Hezashocka for the ATC Cup.
Based primarily at Cranbourne in Victoria, the training partners have recently been granted 16 permanent boxes at Rosehill and are excited by the opportunities it will afford their business.
“We have been utilising five or six visitor’s boxes in a temporary fashion for the last four or five months and we’ve had horses there amass $1.8 million prizemoney. It has been really good for us,” Kent Jnr said.
“It’s something we’re very excited about. We’ve got a great team there and Mick and I are there frequently.
“It’s going to allow us to really stamp our footprint in the Sydney training ranks.”
Price and Kent Jnr hope to play a hand in the feature races at Rosehill on Saturday with Hezashocka in the Listed ATC Cup (2000m), while dual acceptor Raikoke has been scratched from the Listed Starlight Stakes (1100m) in preference for the Kia Ora Prague Handicap (1100m).
Hezashocka was a Group 3 winner in Queensland during the winter carnival and is expected to strip fitter for his unplaced first-up effort behind Gringotts in the Big Dance (1600m) on an unsuitably firm track.
“He needs rain-affected ground. We’re praying the forecast remains as-is because there is rain due,” Kent Jnr said.
“We ran him first-up in the Big Dance because he was eligible, and we had to run him somewhere. It was never going to suit him on a good track over a short distance, but at 2000 metres on a soft track, it brings him right into the race.
“We plan to give him a short preparation, then give him a let-up ahead of the autumn and winter carnivals next year.”
Up to 20mm of rain is forecast for the Rosehill area on Friday and up to 25mm on race day and it will be a case of the wetter the better for Hezashocka, whose five wins have all been on rain-affected tracks.
