Rain Affair will look to carry on their good form at Rosehill

Joe Pride has already locked in his best ever season as a trainer but things could get even better over the final few weeks.

Not only does he have a chance to add a bit more prize money to his tally, he also has the chance discover the true capabilities of a potential sable star.

Rain Affair runs at Rosehill Gardens this Saturday in a Benchmark 95 Handicap over 1100m.

There could be as many as a dozen in the field and it is easily the best calibre of opposition he has faced.

To date he’s been a short priced favourite in all five career starts and only once has he failed to deliver when he finished second at Canterbury.

The other big plus is that when he’s won he’s won well, in fact he’s easily stretched clear by more than five lengths in his last three starts.

It’s something that certainly excites Pride but as always he’s not looking too far ahead.

“Rain Affair is a very speedy horse and has shown a lot of ability so far,” Pride said.

“I don’t want to get too carried away predicting where he might end up but he does look a nice horse.

“The test for these sort of horses comes from this point on when he has to take on better class gallopers. After looking at the nominations, Saturday’s race looks a nice entry into this sort of grade.”

He hasn’t run since his Canterbury domination seven weeks ago but there aren’t too many concerns over his fitness.

He did have a barrier trial last Friday at Randwick and Pride has payed special attention to making sure he was right.

Also aiding his cause is the ride of Corey Brown, a big plus when plenty of the real top line jockeys are unavailable.

Pride is not just looking for a win though on Saturday, he wants to see the horse hit the line hard and really run out the trip.

That would allow him to be given a shot at some extra metres and really open up his option going into the future.

“The next question with him is whether he will run beyond 1100m,” Pride said.

“I think he will but you don’t get that answer until they are tried at a longer trip.”

Rain Affair isn’t the only big name Pride has on the Rosehill card either this weekend with Title backing up fresh of his Takeover Target Stakes victory last Friday.

He’ll run in the feature race, the Listed Civic Stakes over 1400m against a cracker of a field.

“The horse was really explosive at Gosford,” Pride said.

“I thought he would run well but he surprised me with what he did, and being that dominant. “If you watched the race and knew there was a $1.30 pop (Squamosa) in the race, you would have sworn it was Title.”

If both Title and Rain Affair could give Pride a winning double he’d crack 50 Sydney winners for the first time in his career.

It’d also secure him a top four finish in Sydney Premiership and really signal him as a new force in the industry.

It’s worth noting too that Pride has earned this with a comparatively small team of just 40 horses at his Warwick Farm base.

That’s only a fraction of the number of the mega stables and he’s closing in on prize money worth nearly $4 million.