By Craig Kerry
The Mick Price and Michael Kent jnr team is confident Hedged can bounce back from a jarring first-up run to give the operation’s new Rosehill stable a boost in the listed Razor Sharp Handicap (1200m) at Randwick on Saturday.
The successful Melbourne combination have had 16 boxes at Rosehill for just over a month, after several months of using visitors’ stables in a trial run for their Sydney satellite.
Hedged, second from right, running behind winner Headwall, right, in The Warra at Kembla Grange on November 23.Credit: Getty Images
They had an early success with their Sydney team, headed by trainer Ben Elam, when Blazing Harry won at Randwick on November 5 as their first official Rosehill-prepared victory.
However, that has been their only metropolitan Sydney winner so far, a situation Hedged is expected to change on Saturday.
“It’s a transition to Sydney we’ve always had in the back of our minds, and we’re still getting to understand tracks and how they play, which barriers you need to draw, and it’s very much a learning process for us,” Elam said.
“We’ve had plenty of runners-up here, but we were bringing metro grade horses to compete in bigger races. Now we’ve got a base up here, we can bring in horses who might not be doing as well as they could be doing, so you’ll see our horses running at provincial and metro level up here now.”
Hedged was a $3.30 Sportsbet favourite for the $200,000 Razor Sharp, where the four-year-old Capitalist gelding has gate one and Chad Schofield aboard. He was third, one length away, three weeks ago on a lightning fast Kembla Grange track in the 1000m The Warra.
Elam expected a more forgiving surface and a better performance at Randwick.
“He’s going very well,” Elam said. “He didn’t appreciate running into a very, very firm track at Kembla Grange, which was disappointing.
“They couldn’t do much about it with the heat and the wind they had, but it was definitely firmer than what the track was publicly graded.
“All three of our runners ended up going to the paddock for seven days afterwards because they all jarred up on it. But he galloped on Tuesday morning and galloped very well, so we’re looking forward to the weekend.
“He’s very effective on a Good 4, but a Good 4 compared to a Firm 2 is astronomically different. He’s definitely better second-up, and he gets to 1200, which is a big tick for him. He got nosed out by Joliestar in the Arrowfield Sprint, so his form over 1200 is effective.
“Over 1000 first-up was always going to be pretty sharp for him. He was going well enough to win that race, and had it been a Good 4 or softer, he would have let down a bit stronger than he did, but I’m expecting a very strong showing from him on Saturday.”
He said the $1 million Magic Millions Snippets (1200m) on the Gold Coast next month was Hedged’s main target before a break.
Moravia ($5), Pereille and Jedibeel ($6.50) were other top fancies in the Razor Sharp.
