Pornichet will carry the top weight of 60.5 kilograms in the 2015 Toowoomba Cup, but trainer Gai Waterhouse is confident that the imported galloper will have no problem handling the big weight in the $100,000 event this weekend.
Pornichet is clearly the horse to beat in the 2015 Toowoomba Cup tomorrow. Photo by: Steve Hart
Pornichet started his 2015 Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival campaign with two flat performances in the Group 3 Liverpool City Cup (1300m) at Warwick Farm on February 28 and the Group 2 Ajax Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill Gardens on March 14, but he returned to winning form in the Group 3 Neville Sellwood Stakes (2000m) at the same venue on March 28 before he finished a credible fifth in the Group 1 Doncaster Mile (1600m) at Royal Randwick on April 6.
Waterhouse included Pornichet in the acceptances for the Group 2 Hollindale Stakes (1800m) at the Gold Coast last weekend, but the Vespone entire was balloted out of the race and Waterhouse elected to run him in the Toowoomba Cup this weekend.
The leading Sydney trainer believes that Pornichet is clearly the class horse in the Toowoomba Cup field and she is confident that the four-year-old can record his third victory since arriving in Australia.
“It is raining in Queensland and he is a French horse that loves the wet,” Waterhouse said.
“He has done particularly well and Cole King, one of my jockeys, went up to Queensland on Thursday and worked him and he couldn’t have been more delighted with the way that he settled in and the way that he worked over the 1400 and found the line.
“He is a class horse and he certainly will handle that weight easily.
“You have to remember that these horses carry very big weights in the morning when they go around the track.”
Waterhouse confirmed that she remains keen to run Pornichet in the Group 1 Doomben Cup (2000m) in Brisbane next Saturday and she said that the imported galloper would then head to the paddock before beginning preparations for the 2015 edition of the Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m).
“I would love to run him in the Doomben Cup the following week and then I would spell him in Queensland,” Waterhouse said.
“I would then take him to Melbourne to hopefully prepare him for a race like the Cox Plate.”
Pornichet is currently available at 2015 Toowoomba Cup odds of $2.10 with Ladbrokes and he is a clear favourite from Hopfgarten ($4.20) and Wish Come True ($8).
