Brisbane’s leading trainer Robert Heathcote admits that the chances of Greytfilly winning the $2m Jeep Magic Millions 2yo Classic (1200m) at the Gold Coast on January 12 are slowly slipping away after another defeat as a short priced favourite at the Gold Coast yesterday.
After another slow start, jockey Ryan Wiggins had to push Greytfilly along early to keep in touch with the rest of the field before finishing hard to dead heat with Tiarazou for second, half a length behind the Tony Gollan trained Global Dream.
“She probably can’t win the Millions but we will see if we can get her to jump,” Heathcote said after another frustrating second by his smart filly.
Greytfilly raced herself into Magic Millions calculations scoring at her second race start over 1110m at Doomben on October 27 and was then sent for a short break.
Heathcote then kicked off the Ferocity filly’s Magic Millions campaign at Doomben on December 22 and after leaving the barriers slowly, Greytfilly made up ground in the straight to finish second to Mishani Gladiator as the $2.50 favourite.
But the youngster disappointed her followers again as the $1.70 favourite at the Gold Coast when she repeated her tardy get away and has left Heathcote with plenty of work to do to improve her barrier manners.
“We will give her a bit more barrier tuition during the week and see if we can get her to jump when it matters in the big race,” Heathcote said.
“We will just put her through the practise barriers after trackwork and we will just do it two or three times a day to try to sharpen her up.”
“Ryan Wiggins reckons she half waits for them to jump and then goes.”
Greytfilly will have to turn around her bad barrier habits to be any chance of figuring the finish in the Magic Millions, but Wiggins was also concerned about the lack of early speed the filly showed.
“She probably hasn’t got much speed anyway and she is probably a 1400m or mile horse,” Wiggins said.
“But we hadn’t put her through the gates with the blinkers on and I’m glad we’ve got that out of the way.”
“I thought she was going to run sixth but she kept picking up and picking up and if I can get her to jump midfield in the Magic Millions, we’re some sort of hope.”
Global Dream has gained a spot in the top sixteen for the Magic Millions with yesterday’s win but Gollan admits that the filly still needs to improve to be a genuine chance after also missing the start.
“She definitely has to improve for the Millions but she is a good filly and all going well in the next 10 days she will take her part,” Gollan said.
The Clarry Conners trained Assail and Rick Hore-Lacy’s Clevadude share favouritism for the 2yo Magic Millions at $3.60 with Greytfilly drifting out to $18 while Global Dream is at the good odds of $41.
