By Craig Kerry
Cranbourne trainer Grahame Begg was looking to the heavens for a little help again with Magic Time before she starts a Sydney campaign with stablemate Kundalini at Randwick on Saturday.
Magic Time is a $3.20 second elect with Sportsbet for the group 2 Expressway Stakes, while Kundalini was $7 for the group 3 Triscay Stakes, also over 1200m. Jordan Childs makes the trip north to ride both mares.
Magic Time churns through a heavy Randwick track to win the All Aged Stakes last year.Credit: Getty Images
Begg, the son of hall of fame trainer Neville Begg, was keen to keep the resuming pair in Sydney during autumn. It has proven a winning strategy for five-year-old Magic Time, which won the group 3 PJ Bell Stakes in 2023 and the group 1 All Aged Stakes last year, both on heavy Randwick tracks.
On dry tracks in the most recent spring, she was twice runner-up to Belclare in group 2s at Randwick. The track was a soft 5 on Thursday with the chance of showers on Friday and Saturday.
“I’m very happy with her,” said Begg, who trained at Randwick for more than two decades before relocating in 2016.
“She kept running into one a bit better than her last time, but she’s in good order and the reason she’s going to Sydney is to get a bit more give in the ground. Obviously, late summer, early autumn in Sydney, you are more likely to get that than in Victoria.
“Probably her last two runs in Sydney, that’s what brought her demise a bit. They were very fast tracks, and she ran into a very smart horse and just couldn’t reel her in. But both races, they ran really fast sectionals.
“It’s a quality field and Joliestar will be no pushover. She’s a group 1 winner, so it’s a small but select field.
“She will race Saturday then progress to the Canterbury Stakes.”
The Chris Waller-trained Joliestar, a $2.45 favourite, is also resuming on a similar path.
“We are still working out whether we’ll get her out to a mile,” Waller said. “But she’s got a lot of speed, and I’d say we’ll be going to the Canterbury Stakes second up. If she wins that, then she’ll probably go to a TJ Smith. If not, then she probably goes down the mares path to the Queen Of The Turf.”
Begg has brought four-year-old Kundalini to Sydney to chase a stakes win after four top-four finishes in them without a breakthrough.
“I’m very happy with her,” he said. “She hasn’t raced since Derby day at Flemington, and we are desperate to win a stakes class race with her, so we are going to Sydney for the autumn.
“Obviously, there are not many races at 1200 metres in Victoria at stakes grade for mares, but there’s one nearly every week in Sydney.”
Unbeaten Arrowfield mare Clear Thinking is the $4 favourite for the Triscay.
