Nearest To Pin earns shot at WFA sprint

Tuesday 22 July 2014, 4:52pm

Adelaide sprinter Nearest To Pin caused a minor upset at Flemington last start and will be out to do it again in the Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield.

Nearest To Pin claimed his biggest win when he took out the Listed All Victorian Sprint Series Final on July 12.

Many expected that race to be won by the John Sadler-trained Vain Queen, but the mare failed to figure in the placings as an odds-on favourite.

With a breakthrough stakes win under his belt, the consistent Nearest To Pin heads back to Melbourne for his first attempt at weight-for-age racing on Saturday where another likely short-priced favourite awaits.

The Robbie Laing-trained Lord Of The Sky was a 4-1/2 length winner of the Group Three Sir John Monash Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield this month and headlines 11 nominations.

But Andrew Gluyas, who trains in partnership with Leon Macdonald in Adelaide, said Nearest To Pin had deserved his chance after racing well throughout winter.

"He looks to be in good order so at this stage we are full steam ahead to having a go at weight-for-age," Gluyas said.

"The nominations look a bit lean again, although once again there's a standout fancy.

"The way he is racing, with his consistent manner, I think he deserves to have a crack on Saturday."

Gluyas said the jump to weight-for-age conditions was the biggest query for Nearest To Pin.

Nick Hall rode Nearest To Pin to his Flemington win and retains the ride.

Lord Of The Sky has had six of his eight career starts at Caulfield and won five times.

The sprinter will have his first test at 1200m on Saturday ahead of a possible shot at the Group One Memsie Stakes (1400m) next month.

– 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 »