Weight scale biggest handicap for Lees duo

Friday 27 March 2015, 1:07pm

Kris Lees concedes the weight scale of Saturday's Emancipation Stakes favours Catkins but it won't stop him taking her on with two in-form mares.

Under the set weights and penalties conditions of the 1500-metre race, Catkins will carry 57kg, the same as the Lees-trained Hera and three kilos more than stablemate Scorpio Queen.

"I think all of them are a little close to Catkins in the weights but you can't shy away from one horse," Lees said.

"Both of mine, their last two runs have been their best runs for the stable so they're going in in good form."

Hera has been scratched from a $100,000 fillies and mares race in Brisbane in preference to the Rosehill assignment and will be ridden by Damian Browne.

The former New Zealander turned in her best performance since coming to Australia when she ran a close fifth in the Coolmore Classic over Saturday's course and distance.

Scorpio Queen has also raised the hopes of the stable after beating all but Laser Hawk in the Group Three Newcastle Newmarket last start.

Despite those form lines, the two haven't found favour with punters and are the outsiders of the Emancipation Stakes field with Catkins a dominant $1.80 favourite.

On an afternoon when Lees will bid for Group One success with Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist and Caulfield Cup placegetter Lucia Valentina in The BMW, he also has Slow Pace looking to resurrect his autumn in the Neville Sellwood Stakes (2000m).

The French import has finished down the track in two recent runs but has shown signs he could improve at Rosehill.

"His work at home suggests he could run first three or four here but the form guide would suggest he can't," Lees said.

"We'll see but he will appreciate the sting out of the track."

– 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 »