Progressive gelding Rainbow Connection will palm off Queensland in a bid to win a pot of gold in the Hawkesbury Guineas (1500m) on Saturday.
The Matthew Dunn-trained gelding has impressed in his three starts to date, running behind some useful horses such as Salina Dreaming and Juan Diva.
The three-year-old is a half sibling to Hong Kong star Golden Sixty.
Despite his sibling being a Group 1 winner over 2000m, Dunn isn’t going to rush Rainbow Connection up in distance.
“We like him. (He’s a) Nice horse,” he said.
“At the moment he probably doesn’t need to be going much further than what he’s going on Saturday. We sort of have to take it as it comes.
“We’ll just see how far he wants to get. He’s done good things, that he probably shouldn’t be doing just yet with the experience that he’s had.
“We think he’s got a really good future.”
The son of Choisir had trialled four times before making his debut at Randwick-Kensington back in March.
Although winning impressively by 2.5 lengths, Dunn was still using the run to educate the gelding to relax in his runs.
It could prove a vital piece of the puzzle, with black type on offer in the three-year-old’s next two starts.
“His first few runs, we’ve been concentrating on teaching him to relax,” Dunn said.
“A couple of his trials he wanted to get things over and done with a bit quickly. We’ve achieved that now, he settled really well at Randwick the other day.
“He’ll only have this run and then if he gets through this okay, we’ll go to the Scone Guineas that’s going to be held at Rosehill this year.
“Then we’ll stop and give him a break and bring him back for the spring. He’s got a good future for sure.”
Dunn also has Impasse heading to Hawkesbury on Saturday, nominating him in the benchmark 78 handicap (1300m).
Impasse is first-up on Saturday and has placed five times when fresh.
The six-year-old has trialled well leading into his first-up run, and Dunn says he isn’t without a chance.
“He’s a horse that’s been around for a while, he was with Chris (Waller) before me and he’s raced well in Sydney before, he’s obviously raced well in Queensland for us,” he said.
“He’ll probably need Saturday to get back to his best, he’s not quite there just yet fitness wise, but he’s an each-way chance.”
