Trainer Clayton Douglas is looking to repeat history when sprinter Title Fighter heads to Flemington.
Title Fighter is down to run in the Listed Straight Six (1200m) on Saturday as he bids to win the race for the second successive year after he lowered the colours of Deekay.
Last year Title Fighter came off finishing sixth to Dashing in the Listed Wangoom (1200m) at Warrnambool while this year the sprinter finished fourth to Oliveanotherday in the Warrnambool contest.
However, this year Title Fighter is burdened with more weight, jumping from 54kg to 60kg at Flemington, but he will have the services of Jamie Mott, Victoria’s leading jockey for the season with 102 wins and who trails Craig Williams by two in the Melbourne Jockeys’ Premiership.
Douglas said the plan had been for Title Fighter to head into Saturday’s race third-up and crucially the gelding has had two runs over 1200m to have him ready.
First-up Title Fighter finished a closing fifth to Recon in the Listed Hareeba Stakes (1200m) on Mornington Cup Day.
“He obviously won the race last year and it’s been a bit of a plan to keep him on a similar program this time,” Douglas said.
“These three runs have all be planned since the start of his campaign.
“He was good first-up, was good again last week behind a nice horse and hopefully he can get the job done third-up.
“We won’t have to do much with him this week after his run on that heavy track last time.
“He had a nice enough blow after the race on that heavy ground, so he should take plenty of improvement from it.”
Title Fighter shares equal topwight with the Shawn Mathrick-trained Corniche in Saturday’s race with 60kg in which there are 21 nominations including Pop Award, De Bergerac, Losesomewinmore, Wangoom runner-up Immortal Star and Stoli Bolli.
