Newcastle trainer Kris Lees looked at The Coast a month or so ago and felt he had a couple of horses to follow in the footsteps of last year’s winner Rustic Steel.
Bookmakers might not share his enthusiasm for Loch Eagle, Razeta and Bellatrix Black, which are well into double-figure odds in a wide-open race at Gosford tomorrow, but Lees can make a case for each of them.
Razeta (white cap) is one of three Kris Lees starters in The Coast.Credit: Getty
″Loch Eagle probably has better form than Rustic Steel did last year going into the race, and he could go down the same path of running in The Coast and in the Scone Cup next Friday,″ Lees said.
″I’m a little worried about the Gosford track with him, but he is looking for the mile now. He was very good late in the Provincial Championships to run second to Spangler, [a race Rustic Steel only ran fifth in] and the track then got a bit firm for him at Tamworth. He looked like he was going to launch, but didn’t [running fifth].
“The plan was to come here after that because you don’t get too many chances to run for half a million, and he is good enough to be here.”
It might have only been going for a couple of years, but The Coast is proving a staging point for stakes winners. Nimalee and Arapaho went on to be group 1 winners after finishing behind Brandenburg in 2021, while Our Playboy, Kiku, Steinem and Diamil were among those just behind the place getters last year.
Lees understands why.
“It is a race you look at with those later-developing types because it is a step below the carnival horses,” Lees said. “Razeta won the South Pacific Classic at Randwick and we thought being a three-year-old filly with no weight on her back it would be a good chance to finish her preparation on high at a mile.
“She didn’t really appreciate that track at Hawkesbury, but still ran third in the Guineas there last time. I think she is the kind of horse that will go on to better things in the next couple of seasons.“
However, Lees saved a special mention for former Kiwi mare Bellatrix Black, which gets in with the limit weight of 52kg as a four-year-old after what looks like three uninspiring Australian runs during the autumn.
“I actually looked at this race after the Epona Stakes with her and set her for it,” Lees said. “She jumped from 1400 to 1900 metres that day and probably blew out late. She was a group 3 winner over there [in New Zealand] and she has shown us something on the track.
“She had excuses at her first couple of runs as well and I think she is going to show a bit of improvement on Saturday.”
Lees is looking forward to the Lloyd Williams-owned Sir Lamorak stepping out to 2100m in a benchmark affair earlier in the afternoon and hopes for good ground.
Sir Lamorak has the form reference to suggest he will make it to stakes grade in Australia, being a Royal Ascot runner-up to Surefire as favourite in 2021.
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