By Julieanne Horsman
Sutton trainer Neil Osborne wants to set the record straight before this Saturday’s race meeting at Royal Randwick.
His promising mare, Fraternater, will line up in the TAB Highway Handicap but there’s a bit of confusion around the pronunciation of her name.
“It rhymes with later skater,” Osborne said. “It drives me crazy when they get it wrong.”
Fraternater is named after Osborne’s apprentice jockey, Carly Frater-Hill who will ride her on Saturday. It’ll be their first metropolitan race together.
The mare’s dam is Carlie Rose and coincidentally Frater-Hill’s middle name is also Rose.
“I promised I’d name a foal after Carly and when I found out her middle name was also Rose I knew this was the one,” Osborne said.
“Everyone calls her ‘Fraternater’ when she’s riding well.” Fraternater takes a step up in class on Saturday but will carry the minimum weight and has drawn ideally in barrier 2.
She’s an outsider in the betting markets but Osborne is convinced the odds don’t accurately reflect her ability.
“She can be a bit ordinary out of the gates but as long as she gets away and can be handy enough, I think she will go well on Saturday,” he said.
“I’d like to see her in about 4th or 5th and when they straighten she can run up the fence.”
Fraterner made up plenty of ground at her last start in a 1280m Class 2 handicap at Canberra. She finished 2nd behind Critical Touch who has scraped into Saturday’s TAB Highway after scratchings and this time Fraternater will meet her rival 2kg better off.
Two weeks before that Fraternater had her first crack at a 1400m Randwick TAB Highway, finishing 7th, but even the commentators declared she was given no hope.
“Forget about that one, I’m happy to write it off,” Osborne said. “The jockey made no effort to put her into the race but she still got home well.
“I’m looking forward to Saturday and hopefully by the end of the race everyone will know how to say her name properly.
“I’d hate to have to start walking around calling Carly ‘fratter-nater’ all the time, it sounds bloody awful!”
View the fields, form and race replays for Randwick's Saturday meeting here.