By Nick Berney
The exciting clash between race experience and debutants will be the headline act in the second event at Gosford on Thursday.
The Quickcoat Waterproofing 2YO Maiden Plate (1100m) will see horses coming through proven form lines and first-starters who have trialled impressively.
Sicilian’s co-trainer Gai Waterhouse.Credit: Simon Schluter
Sicilian, coming out of the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott yard, has had two career starts in group and listed grade races, starting hard in the market on both occasions.
The filly resumes here after two trials. She wasn’t extended in her first heat and has since had a solid hitout at Randwick over 1045m recently.
She is wound up for this and expect her to be hard to catch under the guidance of Tim Clark.
Punters charged into the early odds about debutante Estriella coming off two solid trials.
Further, she won her recent heat in style, and that trial had time/sectional merit relative to the morning.
Trainer John Sargent saddles up another improving filly in the Central Coast Cleaning Contractors Maiden Plate (1900m), and she is set to break through for her maiden win.
Divazino has a strong platform, and her ratings/sectional profile suggests she is ready to peak third-up over more ground.
The three-year-old has raced well in both of her career starts, but her last outing had merit in a high-rating race relative to the day and the significant margin to fourth confirmed the quality of the race.
Further, although she was run to suit, she sprinted a strong 400m-200m split and maintained a solid finishing speed to the line.
She can settle closer from the soft draw, brings the best last-start figure and has proven to handle different race shapes.
Import Fleet Commander failed in his Australian debut at Kembla Grange and was an alarming drifter in the betting.
However, he has strong overseas form lines surrounding names like Fawkner Park and Manbehindthemoney.
It’s worth noting jockey Rory Hutchings has a fantastic record when riding at Gosford. The hoop has ridden 21 winners out of 126 rides at the track for a profit on turnover of 8.5 per cent.
Supplied by Racing NSW
Full form and race replays available at racingnsw.com.au
