Wild Rain in for light Spring preparation

Last Saturday’s brilliant first up Caulfield winner Wild Rain will have a light Spring Carnival campaign before being prepared for the Magic Millions Carnival in January next year.

Wild Rain, above,  with Damien Oliver in the saddle score a comfortable win in the Sir John Monash Stakes at Caulfield.  Phoyo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

Wild Rain, above, with Damien Oliver in the saddle score a comfortable win in the Sir John Monash Stakes at Caulfield. Phoyo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

The Mark Kavanagh trained Wild Rain was having her first run back from a spell to score a one and three quarter lengths win in the Group 3 $150,000 Food Services Sir John Monash Stakes (1100m) with Damien Oliver in the saddle.

Wild Rain hadn’t raced since running sixth to Headwater in the Listed $120,000 Kensington Stakes (1000m) at Flemington on January 30 and stable representative Levi Kavanagh said that the mare would more than likely head back to the Gold Coast after finishing second to the Paddy Payne trained Husson Eagle in the $1m Magic Millions Sprint (1100m) in January.

“I think she’s come back better this time, so fingers crossed we can keep going,” Levi Kavanagh said

“We’ll see where we go in the spring with her but she’ll keep to these sort of races and then definitely we’ll be heading towards Magic Millions again.”

Kavanagh said that the stable would keep the Manhattan Rain mare to the short sprinting distance during the Spring and would also space her runs over the coming months.

“We’re going to space her runs this prep and we’ll keep her to the 1000-1100m max,”  Kavanagh said.

Wild Rain’s Sir John Monash Stakes win was the second time Oliver had ridden the mare to victory with the pair teaming up for win back in May 2015 in a 1050m three year old BenchMark 70 Handicap at Morphettville and he agrees with the Kavanaghs that the shorter sprint distances suit her better.

“I think that’s around her level and I think the key is the short-course – the 1000-1100m, she’s very effective at that,” Oliver said.

“It was just a nice even tempo, a building tempo, so it was hard for the backmarkers to make ground on us.”

“We gave a good kick on the turn and (she) was always going to be hard to run down.”

Last Saturday’s win was Wild Rain’s seventh from eighteen starts and took her prizemoney earning to just over $630,000.

About The Author

Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.