Trainer Les Ross is no stranger to having multiple horses in a race and he certainly has the numbers in the AQUIS, QTIS Two-Year-Old Jewel at the Gold Coast on Saturday where he will saddle no less than seven runners in the sixteen strong field.
“I’ve only got seven out of sixteen,” said Ross. “Not even half. Next year I hope to have twelve out of sixteen,” said Ross with typical forthrightness.
“We don’t care which one wins and what price they are, as long as they have a fair go,” continued Ross. “It’s all good. Waller does it every week.
“It can depend on which one gets the better luck in the running, so sometimes a roughie will get up.
“We are not a betting stable like we used to be. We do it to try and win prize-money and we don’t do a bad job of it. It gets us a couple of million a year … and if we can continue doing that, everyone gets a feed.”
The betting for the Two-Year-Old Jewel only has three runners under the $10 mark … the Ross trained duo of Mishani Lily, the race favourite at $3.90, and Mishani Aloha ($6) … with Defiant Boom splitting the Ross pair at $5.
“I think they’ve got that wrong,” said Ross. ‘I think they have got that very wrong.
“Lily won her last start. That was 1100m. She has never won over 1200, so that’s a bit scary although, obviously, I’m hoping she gets the 1200m. Aloha has already won two over 1200m.
The horse that I think will race well is Mishani Crown. I’ve put the blinkers on for the first time.” (Mishani Aloha also has blinkers for the first time).
“I also like a horse called Mishani Fire. I thought she would have won a race by now. She’ll race first-up and she has come back super in her work. I think she will be a live chance at big odds.
It just depends on where she gets from the very wide alley. She will have to go back, but we’ve got quite a few who will go forward … like Aloha, Lily and Crown … and I thought she could get back and be charging late. I hope she is anyway.”
“They are two-year-olds, so we don’t really know the answers,” explained Ross.
“There are quite a few people … about fifteen of us … who are around the horses in the stable and everybody has got a different opinion of who is going to race well.
“Donna … she likes Aloha. Lacy likes Lily. I like Crown. Tommy Orr who rides most of my trackwork … he likes Fire.
“Let’s just hope one of us is right and we can come away with the win.”
“If that can happen, as I said, we won’t care which one it is.”.
