NEWCASTLE trainer Mark Minervini could have run his sprinter Quick Tempo at his home track The Hunter meeting last weekend.
But he held off for Kembla Grange’s The Gong meeting on Saturday, fully aware of the gelding’s liking for both the track and 1000m, and this particular raceday.
Quick Tempo will have Andrew Adkins aboard when he lines up in the $300,000 Group 3 The Warra (1000m) – the third year in a row he has raced at Illawarra Turf Club’s biggest fixture.
Quick Tempo won a Benchmark 78 Handicap (1000m) at The Gong meeting in 2022, then ran second last year to Insurrection in The Warra.
Jason Collett rode him on both occasions, but this year has been booked for Frilled, one of Matthew Smith’s two representatives.
“It’s not always easy to find jockeys to ride at 53kg, and Andy (Atkins) was available,” Minervini said on Thursday.
“I nominated Quick Tempo for both the $1m The Hunter and Benchmark 94 Handicap, but wasn’t sure he would manage a strong 1300m in either race.
“Knowing his liking for the 1000m course at Kembla Grange, I decided waiting another week would be beneficial.”
Minervini’s decision to bypass Newcastle means he is following a similar path with Quick Tempo to the previous two years when the gelding was second-up after a freshen.
Quick Tempo, runner-up to Opal Ridge in the Listed Ortensia Stakes (1100m) at the Scone carnival in May, was resuming when seventh to Dragonstone (a rival again) in the Choisir Benchmark 100 Handicap (1000m) at Royal Randwick on November 5, beaten just over two and a half lengths.
Minervini says the well-named Quick Tempo is a hard horse to get a handle on in his trackwork because he is pretty aggressive.
“He wants to do everything in a hurry, but I feel he is going as well as he did when runner-up in The Warra last year,” he said.
Newcastle jockey Blake Spriggs, who has had a terrific start to the season riding 17 winners,
is in another corner and comes up with a terrific chance to clinch his most important success since returning home in April from a Queensland sojourn after an enforced layoff through injury.
The Group 1 winning jockey, who began his apprenticeship at 16 years of age with Newcastle trainer Steve Hodge, partners Frilled’s stablemate Headwall; a horse he knows plenty about.
Lightly-raced 12-start “veteran” Headwall has won five times, and Spriggs rode him in the first three of those.
Headwall goes into The Warra in winning form, having taken a Benchmark 84 Handicap (1000m) at Randwick on November 5 with a strong finish.
He carried 59.5kg then as he swept away to score by more than two and a half lengths, and tumbles 6.5kg for the rise in class.
Story John Curtis, November 21, 2024 - Pics Bradley Photos
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