Tiger Tees has been backed into 2015 Canterbury Stakes odds of $7 and trainer Joe Pride believes that the veteran sprinter will take up the running in the early stages of the Group 1 event at Royal Randwick tomorrow.
Tiger Tees will return to racing in the 2015 Canterbury Stakes at Royal Randwick tomorrow. Photo by: Steve Hart
Tiger Tees was originally set to start his 2015 Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival campaign in the Group 2 Challenge Stakes (1000m) at Royal Randwick on Saturday, but Pride elected to include the seven-year-old in the 2015 Canterbury Stakes field after less than 10 horses were included in the original nominations.
Pride told Racing Ahead that after careful consideration he decided that the Canterbury Stakes was a more appropriate race for Tiger Tees then the Canterbury Stakes and is hopeful that the Dubawi gelding can maintain his excellent first-up record.
“The thought process the whole way along was just to run in the Challenge Stakes and I didn’t expect to see such a small amount of noms for the Canterbury Stakes,” Pride said.
“When I saw that I thought that I would throw in a nomination and after careful consideration I thought it was probably more a more suitable race to go first-up into.
“He has won his last two preparations first-up at 1200 metres and I think a soft 1300 is probably right up his alley.
“He is in great order and I see this as a suitable assignment.”
Tiger Tees possesses plenty of early speed and looms as the natural leader in the Canterbury Stakes, which is dominated by horses that will be returning to the races for the first time this preparation.
Pride believes that rivals jockeys will be happy to hand the lead up to Tiger Tees in the early stages of the Canterbury Stakes and he will be happy for jockey Christian Reith to take up the running when the gelding jumps from the outside gate.
“I would think that they would be happy for him to lead,” Pride said.
“It gives them a bit of a bunny and there are no other real natural leaders in the race.
“I think that they will be content to have something to set the tempo and he is not a horse that goes slowly in front, so I think there will be reasonable tempo and every horse will get their opportunity.”
Catkins ($2.80) remains a clear favourite in the 2015 Canterbury Stakes betting market with Ladbrokes from Cosmic Endeavour ($3.30), Tiger Tees ($7), Leebaz ($11), Criterion ($11), Hooked ($12) and Royal Descent ($12).
