Trainer Mick Price is confident that talented mare Samaready will run well when she returns to the races in the 2014 How Now Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday.
Samaready will return to the races in the How Now Stakes at Caulfield this weekend. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia
Samaready has not been seen at the races since she beat home just a single runner in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on March 21, but according to Price is progressing well as she builds towards the start of her 2014 Spring Racing Carnival campaign.
Price admits that the How Now Stakes has drawn a very strong set of nominations, but Price told TVN that the daughter of More Than Ready is fit enough to perform well in the Group 2 event at Caulfield this weekend.
“She is fit, ready to go and ready to run well,” Price said.
“Damien rode her this morning on the course proper and she has had a couple of nice trials.
“She can be a finicky thing, she has to have her runs spaced and I need to be a bit careful with her.
“You will see her in the mounting yard, she is a beautiful mare, she is well muscled and really bright in herself.
“That is all we can do.”
Craig Newitt has ridden Samaready in all 13 of her career starts to date, including the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap earlier this year where he famously chose the mare over Lankan Rupee, but leading hoop Damien Oliver has been booked to ride the five-year-old on Saturday.
Oliver has been in excellent form early in the Spring Racing Carnival and Price believes that the reigning Scobie Breasley medal winner is the ideal jockey for a horse like Samaready.
“I think that mare will suit him because if she is let roll into races too early it dulls her finish a little bit,” Price said.
“Damien likes to ride horses to finish off and I think that it will suit her.”
Samaready will be returning to Caulfield for the first time since she won the Group 3 Theshark.com.au Stakes at Caulfield on August 31 last year and she has recorded three wins from four starts at her home track.
The talented mare scored dominant victories in both the Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) and Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield as a two-year-old and she suffered her only defeat at the track when she failed to handle the heavy track in the Listed Quezette Stakes (1100m) in 2012.
