The Dwyer camp have two runners on the home synthetic track today, with Prairie Flower and Better Tomorrow bookending the main quaddie legs at Ballarat.
Race 5 – Prairie Flower
Jockey – Will Price
Barrier – 5
Henry Dwyer’s promising filly, Prairie Flower, kicks off her three-year-old campaign today in benchmark-64 grade over the 1000-metre sprint trip. Twice a winner as a two-year-old, the daughter of Star Turn tackled Listed and Group 3 company late in her debut season, finishing third and fourth in those races before heading to the paddock. First-up today she strikes a race with plenty of speed, likely to come from runners drawn outside her in Hurtle and Ultravox, so the opportunity to sit off the speed and hit the line hard should present late in the piece. With the prospect of metropolitan engagements in the coming months, the stable are keen to see her perform well and, while winning this event isn’t the be all and end all, she is the class runner of the field and we should see evidence of that today. Will Price takes the steer and if he can find clear air on the turn, he’ll look to pick the leaders off in the home straight.
From the trainer:
She’s a smart filly, a tough filly.
I thought it was important to try and get a win with her to start the preparation, we’ve given her the best opportunity of doing that in a benchmark-64 here at her home track
Currently, Prairie Flower is a $3.60 equal favourite.
Race 8 – Better Tomorrow
Jockey – Mitch Aitken
Barrier – 2
The final race on the card sees five-year-old gelding, Better Tomorrow, stay at 1400-metres as he looks to improve second-up on his home track. The fresh effort at Mildura was encouraging – first-up since January – striking the front early in the home straight before being overhauled in the last 100-metres by Lindsey Smith’s handy galloper, Dance Of Thunder. Fitter for this run, the son of Lonhro will look to remain in the fight longer and from a good draw should get the chance to sit handy to the speed. Mitch Aitken keeps the ride in a race of many hopes, headlined by the lightly-raced McEvoy mare, Penfriend, who is first-up off the back of two impressive jumpouts on this circuit. The key for Aitken will be getting his mount to jump well from an inside gate and to settle into his stride as he did at Mildura, hopefully finding a clear passage and fitness edge towards the end of the race.
From the trainer:
This is a pretty strong benchmark-64 race…but given it’s the end of the synthetic season, I just wanted to see this horse on the synthetic. He’s always worked really well on it, I just want to see him under raceday conditions.
He’ll be back in the field again and he’ll be hitting the line well down the outside if they can do that today.
Better Tomorrow is currently an $18 chance in the market.