Trekking will lead the charge of the Blue Army with trainer James Cummings to saddle up four runners with the Godolphin royal blue colours in Saturday’s Group 1 $1.5m Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm.
Trekking, above, will lead the Blue Army charge in the 2019 Stradbroke Handicap at Eagle Farm. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
As well as Trekking, Cummings will also saddle up Home Of The Brave (James McDonald, barrier 22), Viridine (Tim Clark, barrier 11) and Encrypition (Craig Williams, barrier 14).
Trekking drawn barrier thirteen in the original draw but will jump from gate nine if all of the emergencies fail to gain a start with Kerrin McEvoy retaining the ride after steering the four year old into third place behind The Bostonian and Princess Posh in the Group 1 $700,000 Kingsford-Smith Cup (1300m) at Eagle Farm a fortnight ago.
Cummings has reported that Trekking has continued to improve since the Kingsford-Smith Cup and the gelding impressed the trainer with a solid gallop at Eagle Farm on Tuesday morning.
“I thought he let down beautifully in his gallop and we got just what we wanted out of it,” Cummings said.
“He was only just building his confidence on the going here at his last start, so I thought it was really important for Trekking this morning (Tuesday) to work again on that different grass they have at Eagle Farm so he could get a feel for it.”
The Tony Pike trained Kiwi galloper The Bostonian remains at the top of the Stradbroke Handicap market order at $4.80 and is trying to make it a clean sweep of the Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival’s Group 1 sprints after winning the Group 1 $800,000 Doomben 10,000 (1200m) at Doomben on May 11 and the Kingsford-Smith Cup two weeks ago.
On the second line of betting at $6.50 is Trekking ahead of BRC Sprint winner Tyzone who is the only other runner under the $10 mark at $9.50.
