Trainer Tony Gollan was rightly thrilled with Antino’s amazing last to first win in the Group 2 Victory Stakes at Eagle Farm on Saturday and the follow-up report on his strong Stradbroke prospect was just as satisfying.
“He pulled up really well,” confirmed Gollan.
“All is in order. He is having a nice easy week at Embrook now … which is standard. He will back in on Monday with us and then all roads lead to the Kingsford Smith Cup on June 1 … and then off to the Stradbroke Handicap.
“We’ll probably have a soft trial in-between, or a jump-out at Doomben.
“It’s a lot better than the situation I was in last year with him (when Antino failed to secure a place in Queensland’s signature race).
“In saying that he is going to have to carry a couple of kilos more, but I am really happy with him.
“He pulled up beautiful. He has pulled up as good, if not better, than he was going into the race … that’s what you want to see first time back … and off that really good first-up run, I’ve now got four weeks to get him to reproduce that effort and find improvement.
“Finding improvement is pretty hard to do in two weeks. Four weeks gives us time for him to back off and then for us bring him up again.
“He had done a lot of work and was very fit for his first-up run in the Victory Stakes.
“It was just going to be a matter of whether he was sharp enough, because the 1200m is fine for him in the lower race levels but, at the elite level, 1200 is where he is tested.
“His real distance is further than that …1400m … 1600m … probably 1800m, and maybe even up to 2000m, but a mile was his ratings peak run on Stradbroke day last year, so to run that well fresh over 1200m has let us know that we are where we want to be.
“Just got to keep him happy now.”
Antino is currently listed as the $5.50 favourite for the $3 million Stradbroke Handicap which will be contested on June 15.
