Eurell Chasing Group 1 Success With Hosting And Your Honour

Trainer Greg Eurell has done his best to keep promising geldings Hosting and Your Honour away from each other this campaign but he has admitted that may no longer be possible, with both horses on track to contest either the Group 1 Epsom Handicap (1600m) at Royal Randwick or the Group 1 Toorak Handicap (1600m) at Caulfield.

Pinker Pinker

Greg Eurell is hoping that either Hosting or Your Honour will be his first Group 1 winner since Pinker Pinker. Photo by: Taron Clarke

Both Hosting And Your Honour impressed at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday, with Hosting winning the TAB.Com.Au Handicap (1400m) and Your Honour finishing third in the Group 2 Sebring Theo Marks Stakes (1400m), and did enough to convince Eurell that they are capable of the step-up to Group 1 level.

Eurell told Racing Ahead that ideally he would like to target the Epsom Handicap on October 5 with both horses but fears that neither will qualify for a run in the race and is looking at other alternatives like the Toorak Handicap on October 12.

“It is really difficult to keep them separated these guys,” Eurell said on RSN.

“They are both coming through and heading in the same direction.

“An option is the Epsom and if that is not going to be possible for us a race like the Toorak is another option.

“Timing is going to be a little bit awkward.

“If we go to the Toorak we are going to need another run between now and then and if we go to the Epsom we probably won’t have the opportunity to do that.

“It is hard to work out exactly where we are going – the rating isn’t strong enough for either of them to pen in a plan and stick to it.”

The Cranbourne-based trainer clearly has a high opinion of both horses but believes that the lightly-raced Your Honour has plenty of untapped potential and will continue to improve while Hosting is close to reaching his peak.

“He is still very raw this bloke and he has a lot to learn but he has a lot of ability,” Eurell said of Your Honour.

“Saturday was his sixth race start and there is a lot of upside with this horse.

“I do think that he is going to pick up a very nice race.

“Fitness wise based on his second run Hosting is not too far off the mark and I am looking forward to stepping up in distance and seeing what he can do there.”

Both Hosting and Your Honour have been allocated 52kg for the Epsom Handicap.

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Thomas Hackett

Thomas is a passionate and opinionated racing journalist and punter who has been obsessed with horse racing since he backed Saintly to win the 1996 Melbourne Cup. An international racing enthusiast, he has his finger on the pulse of racing news not just from Australia but all around the world.