Accomplished country trainer Barbara Joseph is confident she has the superior form lines and a weight advantage for stable newcomer Wonderbolt in a strong $40,000 TAB Highway Plate over 1100m at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
Wonderbolt (More Than Ready-Fun in Flight) – considered a bargain purchase by Barbara for $31,000 at a tried horse sale for her Monaro Bloodstock Syndicate – offers compelling Melbourne and Sydney Saturday form for the short course flyer at headquarters.
“He’s had joint problems, had to be managed carefully, but right now he is as good as we can get him; there’s Flemington form, a Rosehill win, Randwick placings and a fourth to that Fell Swoop on his résumé,” Joseph enthused, as she prepared for a Brisbane trip and a Group 3 on Saturday with stablemate Just a Blur, leaving youngest son Matthew deputising at Randwick.
“There’s good city form in this Highway but his form before we bought him, is the best in the race. Its set weights so with Koby Jennings’s claim he’s really well in.
“He was first-up and underdone at the Scone Carnival and copped interference so the run was really good. He’s progressed, worked terrific this week.
“And he showed us winning a Goulburn barrier trial and the Scone run that his issues are settled and he’s still got that ability from previous preps for another stable. We’ll know more about the workload he can cope with after Saturday but we’re as confident as we can be with him.
“He’s not an on-pacer, Atom Eve looks the leader but the pressure is always on in those short course races and Randwick generally suits swoopers, so hopefully he can finish off strong for us.
“Paul and I will certainly be living it up in Brisbane if Just a Blur can also run us a race at big odds in a real tough one.”
Wonderbolt, a five-year-old gelding, has the highest rating (77) on Saturday, will carry 56.5kg after Jennings’s claim and will be prominent in betting markets with several proven Highway performers in the speedy Atom Eve, the Dryden’s Beau Tirage and Flash in the Dark along with four-time Highway winner Matthew Dale with the Thelittlerackateer.
Joseph, the Bombala and ACT-based 40-year trainer is celebrated in the bush as the first woman to train a Doncaster winner, three-year-old outsider Merimbula Bay in 1989.
– Racing NSW
