Emotional Circus Chasing Stakes Win in Shorts

A slick tempo in Saturday’s Group 2 Shorts (1200m) at Randwick will give Emotional Circus her best chance yet of claiming a first ever stakes victory.

The lightly-raced mare produced a strong finish despite unfavourable conditions when fourth to More Joyous in last weekend’s Sheraco Stakes and trainer Jason Coyle is confident she can build on that on Saturday.

“She raced really well in a small field that didn’t really suit her,” Coyle said.

“The run was enormous. They went steady up front which sort of took us and the third horse [Streama] out of the picture.

“Obviously Streama is a good, proven horse and she got pretty close to her.”

But there will be no shortage of speed this weekend with the likes of Rain Affair to deliver genuine pace up front.

Emotional Circus showed her ability to handle a short turnaround when scoring back-to-back wins in May and Coyle believes conditions this weekend will provide her with every opportunity despite a step up in class.

“We expect conditions to suit her far better this weekend [than in the Sheraco]. There’s genuine speed in the race so if we can get a bit of luck in transit I think she’s a great chance,” he said.

“I guess what is against us is it is her first time in a Group 2 race and there are plenty of proven runners in the field.”

With regular jockey Christian Reith unavailable, Kathy O’Hara will be chasing her second win on Emotional Circus after piloting her to victory at Scone in May.

“Christian was unavailable that day in Scone and Kathy did the job very well then,” Coyle said.

“The barrier [12] is not really an issue. We’ll get back a bit and Kathy will lob her into a nice spot somewhere and the speed will allow us to come into it at the finish.”

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