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By Greg Prichard

Trainer Joanne Hardy would have no qualms with her horse Lose The Snip settling in front and challenging the rest of the field to run him down if nothing else is keen to lead in the $150,000 NRRA Country Championships Qualifier over 1400m at Grafton on Thursday.

Lose The Snip is drawn perfectly to take advantage of his early speed from barrier three and Hardy said once the field jumps it will be up to jockey Jon Grisedale to quickly assess the situation and make a judgement call.

"Barrier three should be perfect, because he's a front-running horse who can keep going," Hardy said.

"He won't have to do any work to get across from there, so what we'll probably do is jump positive, see where he lands and go from there. If nothing takes him on he can certainly either go to the front or be thereabouts somewhere.

"If the fence is not the place to be on the day, he can always take a sit. He has come from behind to win as well as racing on the pace and winning.

"Over the 1400m he's got a high cruising speed where he can lob along in front and still finish off. If they jump out and go harder than we expect then we'll certainly let them go, but I think he will be on-pace somewhere."

Lose The Snip runs second at Grafton on January 27

Hardy said the rain-forced switch of the race venue from Coffs Harbour to Grafton was a plus for Lose The Snip in this instance.

"It's a very ordinary start if you're coming from a wide gate over 1400m at Grafton," she said.

"It puts us into the race even more from our gate."

Lose the Snip is trained at Coffs Harbour and has never been out of a place in his races there, winning once and being placed on each of the other three occasions, but he's got a fine record at Grafton as well (two wins, two seconds and one unplaced run from five starts).

The rain-affected track won't bother the four-year-old gelding either. He has won in soft 5 going and been placed in both soft 5 and soft 6.

Lose The Snip's three wins have been over 1315m, 1400m and 1406m.

After a short freshen-up at the end of last year, Lose The Snip finished strongly for second to Midweek Hussler in a Country Championships Preview race over 1200m at Grafton on January 27.

That run left Hardy believing he was on track to perform well in the real thing.

"We set him for this race last October and he's as good as he can be for it," she said.

"So we're happy going in. It's a hard race, a tough race, but I'm optimistic about my horse's chances.

"Lose The Snip's ownership includes some of my most loyal, long-time supporters and also six first-time owners. They're all very excited about the opportunity we've got in this race. I'd love to see the horse finish in the first two and get through to the final for them.

"One of those long-time owners, Adam Watts, was a very good friend of Alan Ryan, the Grafton trainer who recently passed away. Adam asked the Grafton club if we could wear Alan's colours in the qualifier as a mark of respect and that request has kindly been granted."

All the fields, form and replays for Thursday's Grafton meeting featuring the NRRA Qualifier