Multiple Group 1 winner Private Eye will be Joe Pride’s headline horse at Doomben, but he expects stablemate The Black Cloud to prove a more than handy understudy.
Evergreen campaigner Private Eye tackles the $1.5 million Doomben 10,000 (1200m), while The Black Cloud will join him on the float trip north in readiness for the Listed Magic Millions Bright Shadow (1110m) on the support program.
It will be the mare’s first time around Doomben, but she is no stranger to travel and has consistently proven she thrives on it.
“She has travelled really well in the past. She’s won at Flemington, she’s won at Eagle Farm, she has placed at Caulfield,” the Sydney-based Pride said.
“Whenever I’ve travelled her away she has always raced well.”
The Black Cloud has won five of her 19 starts, four of those on rain-affected tracks.
Doomben was in the soft range on Wednesday and expected to retain some cushion, although Pride said wet ground wasn’t the only key to her chances.
“And being fresh. Fresh, short-course, bit of a wet track,” he said.
“She has got all those things in her favour. She seems to race best like that.”
A stakes winner at Eagle Farm in December, The Black Cloud will be partnered by Nash Rawiller and has drawn barrier one.
She has been freshened since her solid effort in the Group 1 Galaxy (1100m) in March when she finished just over a length from winner Marhoona, and while she rises in weight, the Bright Shadow represents a significant drop in grade.
“It’s good form for a Listed race in Brisbane, so she lines up well in this,” Pride said.
The trainer is also expecting a typically competitive showing from Private Eye in the Doomben 10,000, saying the veteran has continued to please him since resuming with a third behind barn mates Mazu in King’s Secret in the Hall Mark Stakes (1200m) on April 18.
“I couldn’t be happier with him. It’s a Group One race, they’re never easy, but he’s in great shape,” Pride said.
