Tiny mare Little Brown Horse is on course to maintain her record as a punters’ pal when she tackles a metropolitan open company sprint for the first time on Saturday.
Little Brown Horse, a last-start Caloundra winner in fillies’ and mares’ grade, will contest the Netball Disney Classic Handicap (1300m) at Eagle Farm.
Trained by Kelly Doughty, Little Brown Horse has won 11 races and been placed eight times in her 37 starts.
She is one of the smallest horses racing in Queensland but she has become a punters’ favourite with the TAB positioning her a $6.50 chance.
Statistics show the mare has returned a better than 33 per cent profit for those who have backed her at all of her starts.
Doughty has kept the mare mainly in restricted class and black-type fillies and mares races during her career.
She also ran a handy race in the Gold Coast Goldmarket sprint during the winter, however, stable foreman and the trainer’s husband Gary Doughty, said it was time for Little Brown Horse to tackle open company in Brisbane.
“She isn’t big and weight is always the problem with her. But she gets into this open sprint with 54 kilograms and she deserves her chance,” Doughty said.
“She is just so consistent and has won on good, dead, slow and heavy tracks. The 1300 metres will be no problem and she has done well since her Caloundra win.”
The stable’s handy three-year-old Flamboyer will contest the Jeschkm and Ara Handicap (1600m) despite drawing barrier 17 of 21.
“It is his last chance to win a QTIS bonus. He will roll forward and we can just hope for the best,” Gary Doughty said.
He is hoping for rain for the stable’s third runner who bears the family name, Doughty, in the Stoddart Group Handicap (1300m) in which he jumps from the inside gate.
“He is drawn well but he really is best on rain-affected tracks,” Doughty said.
Apprentice Geoff Goold will ride all three Doughty runners after missing Wednesday’s meeting due to an accident on the Sunshine Coast highway which caused a traffic jam.
