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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Kerry Parker would like to think talented mare Hope In Your Heart can follow a similar trajectory to star stablemate Think It Over and put herself in the finish of Saturday’s $1 million The Gong (1600m).

Trainer Kerry Parker (Pic: Bradley Photos).

The Kembla Grange trainer isn’t predicting the mare will reach the heights of Think It Over, a two-time Group 1 winner and reigning Queen Elizabeth Stakes champ, but said she's tracking well in comparison to the stablemate who was having his 20th race start when he ran third in the 2020 edition.

Hope In Your Heart, a last start fourth in the $10 million Golden Eagle, will have her 19th career start in The Gong with double Think It Over’s tally of Group wins at the same point.

“Think It Over ran third in this race at the same stage of his career so it’d be terrific if she can repeat that run in the Eagle,’’ Parker said.

“It’s not going to be an easy race to win. I was over the moon for Robert and Luke (Price) and young Brock (Ryan) to get the job done last year (with Count De Rupee) and we’re going in off the Golden Eagle form so fingers crossed we can have the same result.”

That Golden Eagle form was good enough a year ago for Count De Rupee, who ran second in the Eagle, to take the prize and Hope In Your Heart’s close fourth lived right up to Parker’s expectation.

Behind her at Rosehill were last weekend’s The Hunter quinella of Vilana and In The Congo and Parker said while The Gong is the end of her spring campaign it’s far from an afterthought.

“It was always a hope from when she came in,’’ he said.

“When we sat down and mapped out a program the aim was, pie in the sky stuff, to get into the Golden Eagle and then into The Gong as you would being a local trainer.

“I always had a nice opinion of her and I went into the Eagle thinking she is the forgotten horse. As it turned out she earned more in that one start than in the 17 starts prior.

“I was confident she would be in the finish somewhere and I was thrilled to see it happen.”

Jason Collett retains the ride on the four-year-old, $7.50 with TAB on Wednesday, in The Gong and while she’s drawn a few gates wider than Parker would have hoped there’s a case it will play to her strengths.

He said the gap of three weeks between runs is ideal as, gallant as she was in the Golden Eagle, the distance drop after winning the Group 3 Angst Stakes over a mile two weeks earlier could have worked against her.

“I thought she was off the bit and holding her own, with the two week turnaround and back to 1500m, but I was really pleased with the way she knuckled down and finished the race off,’’ he said.

“The track was a little firm at Rosehill but all in all she’s going well, she’s had a good week working into it. It’ll be all up to her now.

“She’s a mare that appreciates a bit of clear air in the straight.

“If she can get out wide, she’s run her best races when she’s been able to relax back midfield or worse off a good tempo and get some clear air. She seems to wind up and finish well.”

Hope In Your Heart runs fourth in the Golden Eagle

Hope In Your Heart’s older half brother Tampering has another shot at the Elite Sand & Soil Handicap (2000m) and Parker said he’s had a better set up into the race than last year when he failed on a week's back-up after winning a Midway at the Hunter program.

The six-year-old was in his usual consistent form prior to beating five home in the $500,000 Little Dance (1600m) at Randwick on November 1 and it’s a run Parker is forgiving of.

“He was in a different position to what I was expecting out the back, then off the bit coming to the turn,’’ he said.

“He wasn’t happy on that firm track, hopefully we can get softer ground on his home track.

“He worked really nicely on Tuesday morning, in saying that we had a touch of rain the night before to take the sting out of the track.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Kembla Grange meeting