COLLETT BACK ON TAVI TIME FOR HAWKESBURY GOLD CUP

JASON Collett will be reunited with favorite Tavi Time as Kris Lees targets many of the feature races at Hawkesbury’s Saturday metropolitan stand-alone meeting.

The leading Newcastle trainer Lees this morning confirmed Collett’s booking for the gelding in the $250,000 Group 3 Richmond Club Hawkesbury Gold Cup (1600m).

James McDonald was aboard when Tavi Time resumed at Royal Randwick on April 19 and was narrowly beaten by Sandpaper (who contests Sunday’s $1m The Archer, 1300m at Rockhampton) in a Benchmark 100 Handicap (1400m).

However he was to have ridden at Eagle Farm’s opening day of the Brisbane winter carnival on Saturday before being suspended at Sha Tin last Sunday, hence Collett stepping back in.

Collett rode Tavi Time in a 1000m Hawkesbury trial in August last year and also at the beginning of his campaign when he ran sixth from a wide draw to Willaidow in a Benchmark 88 Handicap (1400m) at Rosehill Gardens the following month.

Tavi Time subsequently was fourth in the $3m Big Dance (1600m) at Royal Randwick in early November and, after being placed at metropolitan meetings at Kembla Grange (1600m) and Randwick (1800m) carrying big weights, won the Group 3 Summer Cup (2000m) at the latter track on Boxing Day.

Lees is pleased with the gelding’s progress since his Randwick resumption, and is hoping to win his first Hawkesbury Gold Cup.

Along with Tavi Time, he will also have runners in the $250,000 Group 3 Hawkesbury Guineas (1400m), $200,000 Listed Hawkesbury XXXX Gold Rush (1100m) and 2YO Clarendon Stakes (1400m).

New Zealand filly Love Poem will have her first start for her new trainer in the Guineas, and Dylan Gibbons will ride her.

Snitzel three-year-old Love Poem, both Group 1 and 2 placed at home, races in the same colours for owner Lib Petagna as Lees’ former outstanding mare Lucia Valentina.

She was transferred to Lees from her original trainer Stephen Marsh after her Australian debut when ninth in the Group 3 PJ Bell Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on April 12.

Love Poem, with Gibbons aboard, had a tick-over trial at Wyong last Thursday when she powered home to take a 1000m heat on heavy ground.

Lees will have dual representation – prolific winners Brudenell and Bubba’s Bay – in the Gold Rush, and also starts spromising youngster Damien in the Clarendon.

Dylan Gibbons rides Brudenell and Josh Parr partners Bubba’s Bay, whilst Collett has the mount on Damien.

Ten times winner Brudenell has never raced at Hawkesbury, but 11 times winner Bubba’s Bay raced twice there early in her career and won a Midway Maiden Handicap (1100m) in December 2022 when trained at Kembla Grange by Ross McConville.

Hellbent youngster Damien easily won a Maiden Handicap (1200m) at Newcastle on April 12 against his own sex, when having only his second start, and now steps up to 1400m.

Lees is uncertain whether Provincial-Midway Championships Final placegetter Imposant will contest the $250,000 Group 3 Hawkesbury Crown (1300m), or a Benchmark 88 Handicap (1400m).

Imposant is currently 20th in order of entry (14 can run with provision for six emergencies) for the Crown.

Story John Curtis, April 29, 2025

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