Michael Hickmott will chase back-to-back wins in his hometown Murray Bridge Gold Cup on Saturday, although he admits he’s not as confident as when he trained the trifecta in the 2024 edition of the race.
Hickmott will saddle up defending champion Maracourt and recent stable acquisition Promises Kept in the Listed contest, which has been reduced to a field of nine after scratchings.
Hickmott said Maracourt is the stable’s best chance and he believes the horse’s recent form isn’t an accurate reflection of how well he is going.
“He’s unfortunately had a bit of an awkward preparation – he won well back in June with a big weight, he was the run of the race in the Mildura Cup, the Leon Macdonald Stakes was always going to be unsuitable and unfortunately everything went wrong the other day at Balaklava.
“Craig Newitt coming back to ride the horse probably indicates that he went every bit as good as what he did last year at Balaklava.
“I’ll leave it completely up to Craig from the barrier but he’s going there in good order.”
Of Promises Kept, a Derby placegetter that was purchased for $80,000 via Inglis Digital, Hickmott said he’s not expecting any first-up heroics and has instead identified options over 1800m and 2000m later in the spring.
“You would think Saturday is going to be a tricky task for him first-up,” he said.
“His focus is probably a couple of races later in the spring, there’s the John Letts Cup over 1800m and a nice Listed race over 1800m at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day.
“Where he gets to in the preparation, I’m going to leave it open ended, a Ballarat Cup might be suitable and, pie in the sky stuff, if he continues to progress forward and go well I might duck across and take him to Perth through the Pinnacles.”
