Kembla Grange trainer Diane Poidevin-Laine only has to walk All Kool “over the road” on Tuesday and believes the mare might be ready to find the winner’s circle again.
The five-year-old has returned in the best order of her career after a couple of placings over 1600m at Nowra, “it is worth a shot at a Class 1” In the Dean Industrial Handicap on her home track.
Poidevin-Laine thought the mare was worthy of a shot at the Provincial Championships last year but it has become clear she prefers to stretch out in distance.
“She is a mare that always runs her best races at this trip, and this race looks a good fit,” Poidevin-Laine said. “She is at home, which is an advantage.
“She has been strong in her two runs at Nowra and although you can run into a good horse in this sort of race we thought she should be given her chance. She is improving all the time and her fitness levels are good as she gets further into a preparation.”
Godolphin's Divine Sanction will start an odds-on favourite despite 61kg in the class 1 with John Thompson-trained Superbee and It’s A New Day from the Gwenda Markwell yard expected to be the main dangers.
It illustrates Poidevin-Laine’s point about running into a good one. But if All Kool can reproduce her New Year’s eve effort at Nowra where she led but had not answer to Sayrien before a battling third there on January 11 under 59kg, she could give cheek.
“She drops five kilos from that last run, because she is stepping up and she will be on the speed and will give a kick,” Poidevin-Laine said. “I think she is going to get better again when she steps up to 2000m.”
Poidevin-Laine has scaled back her team in recent years and keeps a handful of horses in work: “We just keep a couple going as an interest,” she said. “it is always nice to win a race.”
View the final fields, form and race replays for Kembla Grange here