After choosing to make the late call not to send around his emerging prospect Mister Bianco in the Group 3 Winx Guineas at the Sunshine Caost last week, trainer Paul Shailer is now targeting a QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap over 1350m at Eagle Farm on Saturday as the race in which Mister Bianco will look to extend his winning sequence to four straight wins.
Mister Bianco, who was due to be ridden by Ryan Maloney last weekend, was the main fancy for the Winx Guineas but, when Maloney was injured earlier in the day, a problem arose in finding a suitable replacement with Shailer ultimately deciding that a like-for-like replacement could not be found for Maloney, a Group 1 winning jockey with a wealth of experience, the level of rider Shailer and Mister Bianco’s connections felt the horse needed for a competitive $300 000 feature race contest.
It was their call to withdraw the horses and, although not popular in every quarter, it was their right to make it.
While turnover was compromised with the refunds made when Mister Bianco came out of the race, punters had their money back in their pockets and their prospect of them arguable been placed at risk by having a jockey in the saddle who might not have been able to cope with a horse Shailer referred to, when talking to Racenet, as being ‘a horse that’s been a work in progress and has its vices,’ was removed.
“I felt it wouldn’t be fair to the punters or my connections that the horse goes around,” was Shailer’s summing up of an unfortunate situation.
Mister Bianco, whose record includes a fifth-place finish in The Gateway, just 1.86 lengths behind The Inflictor (who would go on to run in the Stradbroke, win the Tatts Mile and run third in the Glasshouse) goes into Saturday on the back of three straight wins, including the $150 000 T L Cooney on Ipswich Cup day when he stepped up again to 1350m. His previous two wins were over 1200m.
On Saturday, the son of Zousain sticks to the 1350m trip where he will have Kyle Wilson-Taylor in the saddle for the first time.
The test is a formidable one with Mister Bianco set to carry the heavy impost of 61kg, which means he will be giving a substantial weight advantage … from 6.5kg to 9kg … to all of his rivals, as well as being asked to carry that weight from the worst of the draw (fourteen out of fourteen).
In spite of these factors which he will have to overcome to salute … whether it is due to the confidence of the punters or the caution of the bookmakers … Mister Bianco currently still sits top of the betting boasts.
