Clark faces 400km round trip for one ride at Kembla Grange meeting

Jockey Tim Clark will make the trip from the Central Coast to Kembla Grange for one ride on Tuesday.

Clark heads south to combine with the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott prepared up-and-comer Rumbling Night, which will contest the Happy Birthday Adam Rusin Class 1 Handicap (1500 metres).

Rumbling Night has only had two starts, and Clark was in the saddle for the first time under race conditions when the three-year-old gelding broke his maiden by more than seven-and-a-half-lengths at Newcastle before being spelled.

“He’s a promising type with plenty of ability,” Clark said of Rumbling Night.

“He’d given me a good feel when I’d been on him in his trials, and then he ran well on debut. When he got up to the 1500m at Newcastle in his second start he went to the lead and gave nothing else a chance. He was up against a couple of Godolphin runners that go OK, and he put paid to them with ease.”

Rumbling Night was holding favouritism in the early TAB Fixed Odds market for Tuesday’s event. The son of Night Of Thunder holds nominations for Rosehill Guineas and ATC Australian Derby, with both of those events at group 1 level. The TAB has Rumbling Night at $26 for each of those features.

Waterhouse and Bott have given Rumbling Night two trials, at Randwick and Warwick Farm, leading into his resuming run, and Clark has been in the saddle on each occasion.

“He showed improvement when up in distance in the second of the trials, and they have him primed to run well over the 1500m first-up at Kembla Grange,” said Clark.