The most productive run of an otherwise indifferent campaign promises to be the key to bush mare Myamira winning back-to-back Belle Of The Turf Stakes at Gosford.
Myamira has been out of the placings in six starts since returning to racing in the spring.
But she gave Rod Northam a timely insight into her chances with a close fourth on Boxing Day in a Randwick lead-up, a run the trainer rated the equal of her effort before her 2014 win.
“She probably didn’t quite come up in the spring but I was really happy with her last run when she hit the line,” Northam said.
“It was very similar to what she did before winning last year.”
Myamira raced against the top level of mares during the Sydney and Melbourne spring carnivals, ending with a Matriarch Stakes run that confirmed she was not a middle-distance horse.
“It was a bit of a mix-up campaign in some regards,” Northam said.
Myamira, with Robert Thompson aboard, will start from the outside alley in Friday’s Listed feature but Northam said the draw would not affect her chances as long as the leaders provided a genuine tempo.
“Gosford is a track that really suits her,” he said.
“She gets back but she’s got a really good 300-metre sprint and she’s able to kick off the turn there.”
Gosford Gold Cup favourites Multilateral and Midsummer Sun have drawn next to each other in favourable barriers for the Group Three race.
Multilateral will be chasing his third stakes win of the season after winning the Wyong Gold Cup in September and the Tattersall’s Club Cup at Randwick at his most recent start.
Midsummer Sun hasn’t won since beating Brigantin in the 2014 Gosford Gold Cup but numerically the seven-year-old brings better form into this year’s race.
In finishing second to I’m Imposing in the Summer Cup at Randwick, Midsummer Sun finished three lengths in front of Multilateral.
The import is the second of two choice feature-race mounts for the in-form Blake Shinn.
Shinn will also ride Barbed, one of three Godolphin sprinters to accept for the Takeover Target Stakes.
The winner of the Canterbury Classic, Barbed will have to overcome gate 11 in the race which winds up Sydney’s summer sprint series.
