Eminent returns to pet track and distance

Friday 13 September 2019, 1:22pm

Caloundra trainer David Vandyke is hoping Eminent's return to his pet track and distance can put the gelding in the right head space for a win at Doomben.

Vandyke has always had a big opinion of Eminent who he considered good enough to run in stakes races as a younger horse.

Eminent trialled solidly for his return from a spell at Eagle Farm two weeks ago but performed poorly on race day, running second last.

It was not a total surprise as Eminent has never run at place at Eagle Farm.

His form is much better at Doomben and in particular over 1350m where he has won twice and been second twice in five attempts.

He will get that combination in the Bentley's Handicap on Saturday when he will be ridden by Jake Bayliss.

"I think a lot of it is in Eminent's head and it is a matter of getting him into the right head place," Vandyke said.

Bayliss is also booked to ride unbeaten three-year-old Alligator Blood for Vandyke in a Class Five handicap at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday.

Vandyke has brought Alligator Blood back to Queensland after the gelding was a late scratching at Rosehill last Saturday week when he became agitated in the race day stalls.

"All going well we can think about a trip to the spring carnival after that," Vandyke said.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »