By Ray Hickson
There’s no taking it for granted but there'll be no change of plan from Mitchell Beer as he asks flying filly Sunrise to back up a track record breaking win when she heads to Randwick on Saturday.
Trainer Mitchell Beer (Pic: Bradley Photos)
The Kembla Grange trainer can see the Midway Handicap (1100m) appears to have fallen into Sunrise’s lap, she was $1.95 with TAB on Friday after the scratching of her main rival Photographics, but he says it’s still an ask.
Sunrise clocked 55.58 for the 1000m on her home track when she resumed a month ago when scoring a 7-1/4 length win over a subsequent winner.
“It all seems to be tracking the right way for her in regards to barriers and scratchings and things like that,’’ Beer said.
“You’d be very brave to take odds on about anything in a Midway coming out of a small Class 1 at Kembla but it sets up pretty nicely for her.
“The noms came up light, acceptances came up light, the barrier is good and then the scratchings were even better so it’s all trending towards her.
“The time was the most encouraging thing out of all of it. To run a track record at Kembla on a soft 5 is a pretty decent thing to do.
“Things worked out well where she didn’t have a lot of pressure and got her own way but she certainly wasn’t stopping. They’ve got to go out and back that up but it’s a good gap between runs.”
Rachel King takes the ride on Sunrise at Randwick and Beer said it’ll be catch her if they can.
“There’s no Plan B. She’ll lead, it’ll be a matter of how hard they serve it up to her,’’ he said.
“From barrier one with the rail out 9m hopefully they’re seeing her backside for a fair while.”
Had Sunrise drawn a better barrier in the Mick Dittman Plate (1000m) in Brisbane she’d have headed north for a shot at a Listed race.
But if she does win again Beer will likely give her the chance at black type in the Listed Denise’s Joy (1100m) at the Scone carnival next month.
The filly was tried at stakes level in New Zealand prior to coming to Beer’s stable where her Kembla win was her first for him from seven starts.
He said she’s been a work in progress since she arrived and her first-up win was a sign that she’s turned the corner.
“She’s been a lot of work. It was always the plan to have her as a faster, on speed, sprinting type but physically and mentally she couldn’t sustain it last time in,’’ he said.
“We had to teach her to come back so she can run a solid 1000m-1100m on speed. If we let her rip she’d be flat seeing out 600m.
Sunrise wins at Kembla Grange on March 22
“As soon as she came back from the paddock I knew we were a massive chance. She was a finer, lightly framed, filly but when she came back she must have put on 40kg.
“Hopefully she can win and we can look at a race like the Denise’s Joy at Scone.”
All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Randwick meeting