With regional zone racing the norm under CovidSafe travel constraints, Jack Smith returns to Dawson Park on Saturday with a five-strong team including star sprinter Jungle Deuce.
The Forbes-based veteran trainer had campaigned Jungle Deuce for three successive weeks at Albion Park in June, winning the Group 2 Flying Amy Classic in commanding fashion before securing the State of Origin series for NSW in a match race with Extra Malt seven days later on June 17.
Travel restrictions then hindered the son of Barcia Bale contesting the $250,000 to-the-winner Brisbane Cup and Smith turned attention to the July 3 heats of Vic Peters Classic at Wentworth Park.
Tight intrastate travel restrictions in NSW soon were in play and the Group 1 Vic Peters was postponed and, for the moment, the only nearby TAB venues for Smith's powerful team are Dubbo and Bathurst.
Fortunately, GRNSW have added city class prizemoney to regional venues and, on Saturday, the Ladbrokes Easy Form feature Jungle Deuce contests offers $4500 to-the-winner and despite having to contend with the five alley, he'll start a very warm favourite.
At his most recent Dubbo assignment, Jungle Deuce overcame box six to secure the $40,000 to-the-winner Brother Fox Dubbo Cup on May 28 in a near record 29.45s and has since extended his impressive resume to 13 wins from just 19 starts and $207,850 in earnings.
In the Dubbo Cup, it was kennelmate Irinka Riley who made the running from box one and, again is Jungle Deuce’s nemesis. She excels from the rails and her personal best at Dawson Park (29.35s) is only one length outside the track record held jointly by Zipping Kyrgios and Midnight Scarlet.
While Irinka Riley’s presence is significant, both Memphis Keeping (Box 3) and the classy Squiggle Keeping (4) must be respected. Memphis Keeping has posted 29.55s at the track while Squiggle Keeping boasts five wins from just six tries over 516m at Dawson Park. He’s been sparingly raced in recent months but, back on home ground, cannot be underestimated.
It's a late afternoon start at Dubbo on Saturday... with the lids flying in the first of 12 races at 4.48pm.
