There’s one way to find out where a horse coming through the grades stands and it’s in that spirit trainer Brad Widdup decided to test unbeaten filly Confess Our Dreams at Randwick on Saturday.
Trainer Brad Widdup (Pic: Bradley Photos).
The three-year-old made it three wins from as many starts with an impressive first-up win at midweek level and Widdup said staying down in the weights and taking on her own age in the Listed $200,000 Tokyo City Keiba Fireball Stakes (1100m) was appealing.
Widdup scratched the filly from Warwick Farm during the week, where she was set to start favourite against older horses, in favour of rolling the dice.
“She definitely hasn’t gone backwards from her win and I just don’t know what level she is,’’ he said.
“I’ve probably run lesser performed horses in races like this.
“I put a lot of work into placing them the best I can but I’m never frightened to have a crack either.”
Confess Our Dreams, $14 with TAB on Thursday, won her first two starts over the 900m at Newcastle in the spring but Widdup said she clearly went up a notch with her Kensington victory almost a month ago.
She contested the lead three wide in the 1000m Benchmark 72 and kept going to win by over a length.
“I thought she would be hard to beat at her first start then was hoping for her to be good enough for her to win at her second start,’’ Widdup said.
“We gave her a break, she trialled up well and it gives you confidence when the big guns like Tommy Berry are chasing the ride.
“He stuck with her and is happy to ride her on Saturday.”
Widdup has healthy respect for the opposition, which includes comeback colt Red Resistance who would have been one of the Golden Slipper favourites last year had he not been injured, but is hoping his filly still has plenty of upside.
“You work her on her own at home and she doesn’t do anything exceptional but come barrier trial or race day she’s definitely got the competitive spirit,’’ he said.
“There’s a couple there with good two-year-old form who ran in some strong races but that doesn’t always come to the three-year-old stage.
“She wasn’t ready as a two-year-old to be taking on those horses but to win the 72 the way she did the other day I don’t think she can do much more.”
The Hawkesbury trainer will be represented by Short Shorts in the Polytrack Provincial-Midway Championships Qualifier (1400m) on his home track on Saturday.
The five-year-old won a similar race at Kembla Grange first-up at the same time last year before running fifth in the Final and since recorded a Group 3 placing in the Dark Jewel.
Short Shorts has won both barrier trials leading into the $150,000 race and Alysha Collett has been booked to ride.
“She has trialled up well, I probably could have run her last Saturday but we weren’t quite sure what we were doing with Ausbred Flirt and I didn’t want to run them together,’’ Widdup said.
“She’s raced well on her home track and I’d like to think she’d be more than competitive.
“She doesn’t like wet tracks but we shouldn’t get that by the look of the forecast.”
– Racing NSW
