By Ray Hickson
Trainer Brett Robb’s view of emerging sprinter Morgenstern goes on the line when the in-form gelding tackles open company for the first time at Warren on Sunday.
The five-year-old has had four starts for the Dubbo trainer for three wins and a second and, after shouldering 59.5kg in his second-up win, he steps up in class into the B & D Brouff Earthmoving Warren Jockey Club Sprint (1200m). Morgenstern enhanced Robb’s opinion when he clocked a slick 1:08.80 in his last start win at Coonamble just over a week ago.
The Cotton Cup is the feature at Warren on Sunday.Credit:Fairfax
“I think he’s a pretty good horse and well find out how good he is against the open-class sprinters,” he said. “He’s going to have to bring his A-game, but I definitely think he’s up to them.
“That’s where his benchmark is now and he’s going to find it harder than his last two races but I liked the way he did it at Coonamble. He was entitled to get beaten. He had a bit of ground to make up and on a track where they weren’t making much ground, and he flew past them like they had stopped.”
A 4kg drop in weight helps compensate for the rise in class. Robb’s main concern is whether he will find another 1200m race too sharp after two runs back. Morgenstern had been tried up to 2000m before joining Robb.
“He might be looking for 1300-1400m, maybe now or the next start. But Warren is a big track; he should be close enough to them,” he said. “He likes races where there is a fair bit of speed on and gets over the top of them late.”
He has a healthy respect for some quality opposition including Seguso, which is a former Victorian now with the Cody Morgan stable, and proven country performers like Westlink and Activation.
Robb has A Magic Zariz, Great Buy and All Words engaged in the feature $37,000 QUBE Logistics Cotton Cup (1600m). Of the three, he said Great Buy had been prepared for this race but needed the track to improve to produce his best.
Supplied by Racing NSW
Full form and race replays available at racingnsw.com.au.
