KERRY Parker’s Provincial-Midway Championships focus will be on two venues tomorrow.
The multiple Group 1 winning Kembla Grange trainer already has one Finalist (Well Timed), and is hoping to qualify another (Let’s Go Again) in the 1350m Wild Card at Wyong.
The latter will bypass the Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1300m) at Rosehill Gardens to contest the Wild Card, and Louise Day has the mount.
The three Wild Card placegetters fill the final places in the 15-horse field for the $1m PMC Final (1400m) at Royal Randwick on April 12 on Day 2 of The Championships.
Whilst the important Wyong race is scheduled for 3.45pm, just over two hours later Well Timed (pictured above) will have his lead-up to the Final in the closer, a Benchmark 88 Handicap (1400m), at Rosehill.
Nash Rawiller resumes a successful association with the smart four-year-old, on whom he won two races at Randwick in September, including the latter over the PMC Final distance of 1400m.
Whilst Well Timed was weighted at 55.5kg, Rawiller will declare 1kg over – and Parker has no dramas with that.
“I’m happy to have Nash back on,” he said.
“He knows Well Timed and is booked for him in the Final, and Saturday’s race will give him a good feel of the horse.
“Well Timed has come back bigger and stronger, and the Provincial-Midway Championships was the logical target.
“I’m looking forward to getting him back to the big stretches at Randwick in a fortnight.”
Whereas Well Timed qualified for the Final by finishing second to Mahogany Girl in a 1400m Hawkesbury heat on March 8, Parker had hoped Flying Bandit would join him in the Final.
However his late surge into third placing in a 1400m Qualifier at home last Saturday wasn’t quite enough to get him there.
“As it turned out the 1400m was a bit sharp for him, but he will take nice improvement from that run,” Parker said.
With Flying Bandit an absentee, Parker still hopes to sneak Let’s Go Again into the April 12 Final by finishing in the first three in the Wild Card.
The late Kembla Grange trainer Mick Tubman prepared Let’s Go Again’s dam, the Al Maher mare Numbers, and won four races with her, including two in town.
“Mick gave Let’s Go Again to me to train before he passed away not quite 12 months ago,” Parker said.
“She is an emergency for the Midway at Rosehill and not certain of gaining a run anyway, so we may as well have a throw at the stumps in the Wild Card.
“Let’s Go Again is an honest mare, and will get her chance to qualify from an inside draw.
“She didn’t have much luck in the Gosford Qualifier a fortnight ago.”
Let’s Go Again finished eighth to Money Team (beaten little more than three lengths), but raced wide and without cover from the 700m. RacingNSW stewards also reported that shortly after straightening near the 250m she had to be steadied away from the heels of another runner which shifted out.
That followed the mare’s close first-up third in a Provincial Benchmark 68 Handicap (900m) at Newcastle on March 1, after which Parker opted to take blinkers off her.
. Wyong was rated a ‘Soft 6” early on Friday morning, and the rail is in the TRUE position.
. TAB.com.au’s latest market on the Provincial-Midway Championships Final is:
$4.50 Matcha Latte
6 Well Timed, Lord Of Biscay8 Welcometobarbados
11 Bojangles, Money Team, Rapt
15 Art Volant, Mahogany Girl, Mogul Monarch
17 Magnatear
21 French Ruler
26 Harlow Mist, Imposant, Vintage Choice
34 Spangler
Story John Curtis, March 28, 2025 - Pics Bradley Photos
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