Trainer Kristen Buchanan believes veteran mare Two Blue needs only one more factor in her favour for Brisbane racegoers to see the best of her in the Group One Stradbroke Handicap.
Two Blue is at $81 on UBET for Saturday’s $1.5 million race but Buchanan believes a combination of factors means she is well and truly over the odds.
Buchanan called on her toddler daughter MacKenzie to draw Two Blue’s Stradbroke barrier and she came up trumps with No.2.
“We wanted to get a barrier inside five and we got that. She drops sharply in the weights down to 52kgs and Eagle Farm should have more give than Doomben,” Buchanan said.
“I would like it on the soft side, so please water the track.”
Two Blue is rising eight-year-old but had been in career-best form before coming north winning the Group Two Sapphire Stakes at Randwick and finishing an unlucky second in the Group Three Hawkesbury Crown.
In Brisbane, she ran fourth in the Group One BTC Cup and then finished last in the Group One Doomben 10,000 two weeks ago.
Two Blue was caught in a three-way speed battle which saw the leaders run 42.27 seconds for the first 700m sectional.
“It has been well publicised what happened in the Doomben 10,000. But she has come up well from what was a very hard run,” Buchanan said.
“She is an amazing mare and seems to be getting better with age.”
Gold Coast jockey Tegan Harrison will be chasing her first Group One winner aboard Two Blue after finishing second in the Stradbroke on Temple of Boom two years ago.
Harrison’s other best effort in a Group One race is also a second, in the Doomben 10,000, aboard Temple of Boom.
Buchanan said Harrison was a noted rider of front-running horses and would suit Two Blue.
“Tegan is an experienced Group One rider these days and I am sure she will get Two Blue to roll along and settle,” she said.
