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By Ray Hickson

Fresh from plundering last week’s two-year-old features for Tulloch Lodge, jockey Tim Clark turns his attention to adding Trunk to the stable’s burgeoning list of juvenile winners in Saturday’s $2m Inglis Millennium (1100m) at Randwick.

Jockey Tim Clark (Pic: Steve Hart)

While Trunk doesn’t have the same profile as Canonbury winner Prost or Widden winner Lady Of Camelot going into the feature race he’s adamant the colt has what it takes to be competitive.

The Snitzel youngster did some work on debut at Geelong before being run down by Stay Focused back in early January and Clark can see upside to him.

“He’d been trialling really well with Straight Charge before he went to Melbourne,’’ he said.

“He’s a horse that works really well and I think he ran into a pretty smart one when he went down. They’ve elected to come back here and target this race.

“He’s had that nice tickover trial, where he was ridden off speed. I don’t think that’s his normal pattern, he’s going to be better suited when he’s racing right up on speed and from that good draw he should get that opportunity.”

As Clark mentioned, Trunk wasn’t able to find an on pace position in his trial and he elected to pull the horse back into a trailing position.

He warmed up at the finish to be beaten under a length by Prost in a gallop that pleased Clark.

“He hit the line well in what looked like a pretty good trial, obviously Prost won and Manaal and Espionage were in the trial,’’ he said.

“The last couple of gallops he’s put in he’s gone really well and he’s going to turn up to the races spot on and ready to go.”

Clark expects to be able to position Trunk, $8 with TAB on Thursday, in a forward position and said with stablemate Fully Lit likely to look to cross and offset a wide gate he should be well suited.

“I think he’s got that natural speed, the stablemate will be working forward from that draw and I’d be anticipating a bit of pressure,’’ he said.

“He’s going to be a horse that gets out over a little bit of ground in time so he’s going to be very strong at the back end of 1100m.”

So far this season the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable has trained 11 individual two-year-old winners of 14 races headed by the unbeaten Storm Boy.

Clark said he’s always confident when he’s legged aboard one of the stable’s youngsters and the results are speaking for themselves.

“It starts from all the hard work they put in before they go to the sales, it flows through from there,’’ he said.

“They’ve done a good job bringing the right horses into the stable and have handled them really well throughout the early part of this season.”

Omni Man kicked off his last campaign with a win under Clark’s steering and the jockey hopes lightning can strike twice in the Laurel Oak Bloodstock Handicap (1000m).

The five-year-old, a winner of seven from 15, won four of his seven starts last preparation, three of them over the 1000m, and Clark said he’s a versatile sprinter who has been well prepared for a return.

Trunk runs fourth in a trial at Randwick on January 22

“He had a lot of issues with his feet early on but as he’s got older they’ve been able to get on top of them and that’s bought about his good performances on the track,’’ Clark said.

“He won a few in a row last prep and he was unlucky not to win at Moonee Valley.

“He’s a really talented sprinter who has a great first-up record. He’s had the two trials to get him ready and I’d expect a good positive run from him.

“Wherever he is, as long as he’s in a nice rhythm and not overdoing it that’s when he races best.”

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