The rain that has fallen in Brisbane is good news for trainer Kelly Scweida and Stella Ombra at Doomben.
Many trainers have been complaining about hard tracks in south east Queensland in recent weeks.
One horse who has been disadvantaged is the Schweida-trained Stella Ombra who runs in Saturday’s Daniel Bullimore Handicap (1200m).
Stella Ombra has run fourth at his past two starts and has shown his liking for ground with the sting out of it including when he won at Randwick last June.
Doomben was in the soft range on Friday after two days of rain.
“He does like some give in the track. But he is also older now and it takes a bit longer for him to work up to his best,” Schweida said.
“He had a long campaign last time and was on the fat side when he came back into work this time.”
“There will be a lot of pace on in Saturday’s race and that should suit him.”
Damian Browne will be reunited with Stella Ombra.
“Damian has won on him and he is a jockey who is a great judge of pace,” Schweida said.
“He would have ridden Stella Ombra last start but he was on holidays.”
Browne will also ride the handy Oink in the Benchmark 85.
“Getting out to 1350 metres should be a big help for him,” Schweida said.
Stella Ombra is a $6 chance in the open handicap in which the Kevin Kemp-trained Tisani Tomso ($10) will be among his opponents.
Tisani Tomso has been a workhorse for Kemp having 61 starts for 10 wins and 22 placings in a career which has lasted five seasons.
“He always tries and I can’t remember when he ran a bad race. He wasn’t far away in a Listed race three runs back and since then has been placed twice behind Tarzan,” Kemp said.
“Tisani Tomso has won $316,000 prize money so you would love a few more like him.”
Paul Hammersely rode Tisani Tomso to third at Doomben on January 20 and was keen to retain the ride.
