By Ray Hickson
There’s still time for lightly raced five-year-old Deel With Me to live up to Bjorn Baker’s hopes, and a good way to do that would be to add his name to the trainer’s team heading towards the rich Big and Little Dance races through the Bathurst Cup on Sunday.
Baker already has Orange Cup winner Shameonus heading towards the $2million Big Dance (1600m) on November 1 at Royal Randwick, and Ita is also eligible after her second in the Orange Cup but is more likely to run in the $500,000 Little Dance on the same day.
Bjorn Baker has some good chances at Bathurst on Sunday.Credit:Getty
Deel With Me is the Warwick Farm trainer’s lone representative in the $50,000 Daffodil Cottage Bathurst Cup (1800m), and he said this is a big chance for the gelding to repay everyone’s faith.
“If he could get to the Big or Little Dance we’d be happy. We’d love to be there, that’s the plan of attack,” Baker said. “He’s a horse that’s always shown a lot. He probably hasn’t delivered quite as much as I would have expected at this time.”
After placings at Goulburn and Kembla Grange in his first two runs this time around, it may appear that Deel With Me’s last start ninth at Rosehill in an 1800m Benchmark 78 isn’t the ideal lead-up to such an important race.
But Baker saw merit in it. The gelding was jumping from 1400m second-up to the 1800m and made some ground from last on the turn.
“I thought his run last time was good,” Baker said. “He was just warming up through the line. He had a little bit of an interrupted passage and I thought he was quite good late. He’s got a pretty good gate and he’s generally good on all tracks. He’s ready to run a really good race.”
Three-year-old Loud is a likely improver, according to Baker, on her debut performance when she steps out in the MBA Wealth Solutions “The Barb” Ida Trail Cup (1200m). The Ocean Park filly finished midfield at her first outing at Hawkesbury where she settled well back and made ground to run seventh.
Supplied by Racing NSW
