Joe Pride has hardly beaten himself up after My Psychiatrist raced out of character at Rosehill last weekend.
Rather the Warwick Farm trainer has forgiven her disappointing run in the J B Cummings Hall Of Fame Handicap (2000m), leading into Saturday’s Listed McKell Cup (2400m) at Randwick.
The trainer had been buoyant last weekend and was surprised when the mare ran ninth, 11 lengths adrift of the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Broadside.
My Psychiatrist was away slowly under apprentice Deanne Panya but led into home straight before fading to only beat three horses home.
“She’s an honest mare and she always gets to the line so it was unusual,” Pride said.
A post-race vet check revealed no abnormalities so Pride had no hesitation in backing her up after the worst run of her career in the McKell Cup, a stepping stone to the 3200m-Stayer’s Cup at Randwick on June 10.
“Whenever I go in really confident with a horse and they don’t put in the performance but come out of the run really well, it’s my general philosophy to take them back to the races and they’ll make a lie of the previous run,” Pride said.
“They can’t be at their best every day. If there’s nothing wrong you’ve got to give them another opportunity.”
However, patience does run out and if My Psychiatrist does not produce a much-improved performance with the blinkers removed, then she will be headed for the paddock.
Pride did not believe stepping up to 2400 metres for the fifth race of her preparation would be an issue and was pleased with barrier one.
“I’d be pretty hopeful of trailing behind one of two of Gai’s horses (Broadside or Multitude) and let them do a little bit of the work this time,” he said.
My Psychiatrist was rated an $11 chance with the TAB on Friday. Broadside was the $2.80 favourite to record back-to-back victories while Godolphin’s Allergic was at $3.40.
“It’s a pretty competitive race,” Pride said. “But she’s a pretty competitive mare at her best as well.”
