Interesting start to Saturday’s Sunshine Coast meeting

It is not often that you have a fair-sized field of three-year-olds in which by far the majority are unraced horses … this is three-year-old’s we are taking about … but that is the case in what presents as an intriguing contest in the first race at the Sunshine Coast on Saturday.

No less than seven out of the ten runners have yet to see race action with only three of them having raced as two-year-olds. That is not to say the unraced runners have not been doing important preparation work behind the scenes as their trainer’s lined up this 1000m QTIS Three-Year-Old Maiden Handicap for their respective debut outings … and that is where much of interest comes in.

The Robert Heathcote trained Cosmo Centaurus, who is the clearcut race favourite, has trialled four times and has won his last three trials in a row in a strong enough manner for Heathcote to tell Racenet that, “He is an exciting juvenile, he is as nice a young horse as I have had in my stable for the last five years.”

Two of those trails were in July, so you would expect they will have brought the gelding along nicely in terms of being primed for the race.

Another debutant, the Kelly Schweida trained Better Not Forget has had half the number of trails as Cosmo Centaurus, but he also has a last trial win to recommend his chances, while Dazzling Diamond has been extremely consistent in her work, finishing a closeup second in all three of her trials to date.

All of those are encouraging results … but, as Heathcote was quick to point out himself when talking about Cosmo Centaurus’ possible potential, they still have to go out and do it under full race conditions.

Of those runners that have raced before, the Stuart Kendrick trained Heart And Spirit is a popular fancy, being currently marked up as a clear second favourite behind Cosmo Centaurus.

Heart And Spirit has won two trials either side of his only race start. Her one and only run to date came in April when Kendrick elected to take him straight to town and he was found wanting when finishing unplaced, well behind the winner Mishani Lily.

The take-out from that though is the run gave Heart And Spirit some invaluable race experience and the fact Mishani Lily went on to win the Listed Dalrello Stakes also adds further perspective to that result. Another factor, not to be taken lightly, is that Heart And Spirit will be racing on her home track.

The particular expertise of the Premiership winning duo of trainer Tony Gollan and jockey Jimmy Orman will also be in play here as they combine to try and get the daughter of Better Than Ready Maragical’s career off to a winning start … and, of course, there are others, including the Michael Freedman trained Balmoral, looking to stake their claims.

This race, which is full of possibilities, kicks off a ten race-program at the Sunshine Coast.

The meeting was originally scheduled for Eagle Farm, but that venue is current ‘out of order’.

Online bookmakers have Cosmo Centaurus as the short priced favourite in the race.