Luckygray’s Railway Stakes Slide Unwarranted

Luckygray has probably been the forgotten horse of the 2011 Railway Stakes with the Gino Poletti trained four year old a real drifter on the betting market.

Despite opening as the favourite for the event horses such as Ranger, Playing God and He’s Remarkable have all been hogging the limelight since then.

That’s of no concern to the trainer though who says it’s probably just levelling out what at first was overhyped expectation.

“He was really a false favourite to start with early in the piece,” Poletti said.

“He hasn’t raced against these group one horses before.”

That said his recent record is impressive having won three in a row since returning on September 24.

Most importantly as an odds on favourite last start over 1400m at Ascot Luckygray put more than three lengths between himself and the second placed Mega Steel.

This adds to a series of wins he notched up at the start of his career when he also made it three in succession.

In fact the only losses he’s had are when fourth a little over a length back in the Challenge Stakes and second to Playing God by a similar margin back in February.

Miller says he’s primed to turn the tables of Playing God this Saturday and he’s in the best shape ever.

“He’s a good worker, you’ve just got to be careful you don’t over work him but we’re very happy with him,” he said.

Luckygray is having a three week gap between runs but Miller feels that’s better than running twice in seven days.

“He’s never backed up since I’ve had him…I thought if he backed up we’re probably going to diminish him,” he said.

“If he gets beat I won’t be blaming the three weeks, if he gets beat maybe the mile is too tough for him or the Group 1 was just too good.”

One issue they do have is having drawn the outside alley but from there they’ll simply switch him off until the approach the bend.

“We’ll ride him to his strengths, he’ll get back,’ he said.

“Definitely Ranger is the horse to beat, Roger James horse (He’s Remarkable)…I think he’s a really nice horse too.”

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