As Carole and Jeff Eaton play host to seven of their 12 grandchildren on a balmy Wednesday during the school holidays, their dates with potential Group race glory couldn’t be further from their minds.
“That’s the least of my worries at the moment,” Jeff laughed.
“I thought we had six kids but here but Carole’s just told me I miscounted and we’ve got seven which is good to know…I’ll have to keep a closer eye on them.”
The husband and wife duo enjoying some family time before embarking on the biggest two days of their chasing careers.
On Thursday, Audrey’s Magic will jump a $14 chance in the Richmond Straight Cup final. Then on Saturday night, Freight Express will go around Wentworth Park as an $11 hope in the Group 1 GBOTA National Derby.
Audrey's Magic has only ever raced up the straight and has a career record of 32: 9-13-2
If all goes well, the Eaton’s could pocket $100,000…not that they seem too bothered by the money.
“We're just happy to be in there if I’m honest,” Jeff added.
“Audrey’s Magic has been really consistent lately, she's well boxed (Box 7) and she likes the outside. She’s just been jumping really well and that’s her best chance of winning on Thursday. if she doesn’t jump, we can kiss it goodbye.
"She ran 17.56 in the heat, 17.52 a week earlier and 17.43 earlier in the year as well and she rarely runs a bad race. Her mum is Grand Audrey and her grandfather is La Grand Logie. We raced and bred both of them and they were both quick out of the boxes as well.”
Jeff anointing Cawbourne Leota and Tino Banner as the dogs to beat in the $25,000 feature.
“They both have early pace and over that distance, whoever generally gets out in front is hard to catch,” he said.
“Mile A Minute is the other interesting one because he’s only had the one race start there and is a group-level dog so he should improve a fair bit. I think there was only two lengths covering the whole field in the heats so it will be a good race”.
The 71-year-old perhaps slightly more confident in the chances of Freight Express on Saturday night.
His son of Aussie Infrared x Mary Mary set to jump from Box 6 in the National Derby final after winning his heat in a time of 29.95.
“Freight Express sizzled in the first two sections the other night but I think he looked a bit lost coming for home and was looking for somewhere to lay down late if I’m honest,” Jeff laughed.
“But we’ll see how he goes. He’s a good box dog too and I think the secret is the work we do up the straight when we’re educating them. We break them in ourselves and we always take them up to the Redhead straight and put them up behind the drag lure.
“That tends to pull them out of the boxes and I think its very much like natural coursing for them.”
The youngster already has 13 race wins from 24 starts but his victory last Saturday night was his first at Wentworth Park and first over 520m.
“The final is going to be a little bit tougher than last week but he’s going to be a lot better for that run,” Jeff said.
“He’s only been to Wenty Park twice…the heat run and we gave him a post-to-post six weeks ago. He ran 24.1 that night but he hurt himself so he’s only had three starts in nearly two months and only one run in the last three weeks.
“The start is just so critical. If he can jump and lead at that first turn, he may be hard to run down. If it’s a faster track this week, it’ll certainly suit him and he rails like nothing else.
“I guess he could end up a bit flat from that run last week but he’s jumping out of his skin at the moment. Most of our dogs just go on the walker between runs but he likes to do that and run up and down in the yards, he likes to absorb the work. I don’t think he can run 29.5 but 29.7 might be good enough to win that race on the night.
Freight Express before winning a heat of the National Derby
“We’ve never won a Group 1 so that’d be an absolute dream come true if we could pull it off.”
The Richmond Straight Cup final is Race 7 on the card on Thursday while the National Derby final will be contested in Race 7 at Wentworth Park on Saturday night.
