Trainer Henry Dwyer says wet tracks will determine the number of feature steeplechase races Riding High can run in and win.
For that reason, Dwyer believes the Australian Steeplechase (3900m) at Sandown on Sunday is the gelding’s best opportunity for victory this year.
Riding High won the Australian Steeplechase in 2021, but a tendon injury last year forced the gelding to miss the race.
After a pleasing fourth in the Brierly Steeplechase behind Britannicus, an opponent on Sunday, at Warrnambool earlier this month, Riding High is ready to tackle the race.
“This race is his best race every year,” Dwyer told RSN.
“With the jumpers there are so many idiosyncrasies between the tracks with the number of jumps and how horses handle certain surfaces, so you don’t get many cracks at their best race every year.
“He won the Australian Steeple dominantly two years ago and Sandown being a bit drier than Warrnambool, and the western districts places we get to, it really suits him.
“He’s got a good turn of foot for a jumper, and this is his target race every year as the tracks get a bit wet for him later on in the year as well.”
Dwyer said Riding High had the grounding before his first-up run over jumps in over a year on the flat but said the gelding would be improved with that latest run under the belt.
He said he was pleased with the way Riding High hit the line over the 3450m and will appreciate the rise in distance on Sunday.
Dwyer said the field Riding High meets on Sunday is similar to the one that went around at Warrnambool.
“He made up ground on those better horses late in the race,” Dwyer said.
“He’s had that run at Warrnambool and I thought he ran really well, he was really brave and it looks a similar race again.”
