As many of the State’s marquee kennels turn their attention to the NSW National heats taking place in Sydney on Saturday, two camps will try and stretch their luck across both the circle and straight track programs.
Lindsay Davis and Jason Magri are the only trainers who will send out runners in Saturday morning’s NSW National Straight Track heats at Richmond, before heading east to contest the NSW National Sprint preliminaries at Wentworth Park in the evening.
Kingsbrae Demon has only had the three starts for Davis - and just one run at Wentworth Park - but will have the herculean task of outgunning rising star Zipping Remus in his heat of the Sprint Championship.
“I’ve only had him six weeks but he ran 29.42 at The Gardens in his first run for me. He hurt his foot and had a month off then came back and went 29.97 at his first go in town,” Davis said.
“He should have a few more tenths of improvement in him this week but I really think he can get down to as low as 29.5 in time, and if he can stay on the rail on Saturday night, he’s a chance.”
“He went 5.39 to the mark in his only Wenty race so his box manners are good and I think he can lead a few fields with that sort of first section time.”
The son of Beast Unleashed bringing more than just ability to Davis’ Branxton base.
“He’s a little bit of a ratbag around the kennels and he likes to walk backwards when you put him on the lead,” Davis laughed.
“He’ll be walking beside you like normal and all of a sudden, he’ll swing his butt around and be back to front. He tries to do it when we walk to the boxes so I’ll have him on a short leash come Saturday.”
The Hunter-based trainer preparing litter brothers Okey and Monkey Paw for separate heats of the NSW National Straight Track event as well.
Davis hopeful more than confident the grandsons of Group 1 winner Keybow will greet the judge first.
“Okey has been racing over the 280m at Wenty and will back up after Wednesday night. He ran 15.88 there a few weeks ago and his PB is 15.85 so he’s going well,” Davis said.
Okey is a 14-time winner out of Ketakey
“He just wants the rails badly so the box draw [Box 8, Heat 1] doesn’t help. He's had one run up the straight before and wasn't suited out wide so he’ll need to nail the start to win.”
“And Monkey Paw went well from the short boxes at Maitland this week so he’s ready to go and is the better chance of my two.”
“He hasn’t been up the Richmond Straight but he does do a lot of work at the Redhead trial track and I’ve got my own 300m straight at home so he knows what he’s doing.”
Jason Magri enters the weekend having won more races in NSW than anyone not named Andy Lord since May 1.
The Kemps Creek local keen to see what 10-time winner and 2023 Richmond Straight Cup Finalist, Oscar Moses, can produce on Saturday.
“He is a funny sort of a dog because just as you get him going good, his form can go backwards just as quick. He’d been off the track for a few months but I gave him a good hit out up the straight last week to get him back into racing rhythm,” Magri said.
Oscar Moses was all smiles after winning a heat of the Richmond Straight Cup earlier this year
“The one [Aston Ulysses] and two [Slingshot Rusty] should sit on the fence and Weffalee Shield might use a bit of the track so he’s just got to nail the start and get straight on the arm. He dwelt a bit last week but still ran 17.52 so I think he can go better.”
“The query runner is the pink [Speeding Fine]. It’s going good. I just don’t know if it’s trialled or had a run up the straight before but it’s form on the circle and in the Thunderbolt was great and it’s a fast animal.”
Magri also buoyed by the return of 2023 Richmond Derby champion, Zipping Novak, to Wentworth Park – a track he’s tasted victory on eight times.
“He trialled Tuesday at Wenty and went as good as he can go and he’s probably starting to mature right up now. He’s ready to show his best so I’m excited to see what he can do and I think he can do something special in the next six months,” Magri said.
“I don’t mind Box 8 but Wyndra All Class [Box 7] likes to use a bit of the track so that will determine how wide we are going into the first corner and probably setup the race.”
