Scone horseman Scott Singleton is no stranger to Highway Handicap success, but he will find himself rubbing shoulders with some of Sydney racing’s biggest names when he saddles up two-year-old Super Norwest at Randwick.
The only country trainer represented in Saturday’s Drinkwise Plate (1100m), Singleton will go head-to-head with the likes of James Cummings, the Tulloch Lodge team of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott Bott , renowned juvenile trainers Peter and Paul Snowden and Bjorn Baker.
But he isn’t overawed by the task and he doesn’t expect Super Norwest to be either.
A $125,000 Inglis Classic purchase, Super Norwest was a strong winner of her only barrier trial at Tamworth earlier this month and while Singleton concedes she has a tough task making her debut against Magic Millions fancies Empire Of Japan and Platinum Jubilee, he is confident she will hold her own.
“She’s a really nice filly and a real two-year-old to look at,” Singleton said.
“It’s obviously a big step up in grade to go down there but if she’d trialled in town, she still would have trialled well.
“I don’t think she is completely out of place down there, even though the market might think so off a Tamworth trial.
“She has good ability and she won’t run badly, she will be competitive.”
Super Norwest is one of the outsiders of the field at $51 with the race anticipated to be a two-way clash between Breeders’ Plate winner Empire Of Japan ($2.40 fav) and impressive Gimcrack Stakes heroine Platinum Jubilee ($2.50).
The result is likely to determine favouritism for next month’s Magic Millions Classic (1200m) with the former currently heading betting for the $2 million feature at $5, a point shorter than Platinum Jubilee ($6).
Godfather, a stablemate of Empire Of Japan and a $1.1 million yearling, is also prominent in markets for both races and has a fitness edge after winning the Listed Phelan Ready Stakes at Eagle Farm two weeks ago.
