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Promising three-year-old Underpants – yes that is his real name – can enhance his record when he looks to defend his unbeaten first-up statistics at Wagga on Tuesday.
Underpants ($3.20 favourite on TAB) has displayed a lot of potential to date with his four starts producing two wins, a second a fifth for Wagga trainer Scott Spackman and his connections.
The galloper won on debut at Wagga before going for a spell after one more starts then returning with another first-up victory at Leeton.
Kept to one more start in his second racing, Underpants then finished off strongly for second behind November Fall before going for another break with the Newhaven Park Country Championships in mind.
Underpants has drawn the outside barrier 9 for the Ted Ryder Cup Day December 22 BM58 (1065m) for the seven races on the Riverside Track which is rated as a Soft 6.
The form from the last start of Underpants reads well with Real Gun (third) and Arthur The Great (fifth) finishing behind Underpants at Albury and both winning their next two starts.
The galloper will have to carry 62kg whereas Continuum has 59kg after the claim for apprentice jockey Coriah Keatings.
The Queanbeyan-based apprentice rider has six rides on the program and recently ride her 20th winners at Canberra on Friday.
She has ridden eight winners form her past 50 rides and is pleased to see the hard work she has been undertaking paying dividends.
"It's nice to be given winning opportunities and making the most of them," she said. "It all comes down to hard work and riding plenty of track work and learning from each race."
Keatings was successful on Tavolo at Canberra on Friday which was her 20th winner, but she is still able to claim 3kg at Wagga as she was declared on the horses prior to losing her 3kg claim.
Tavolo is prepared by Rob Potter who is having a great run of success himself with six winners and three placings from his past 10 starters.
Meanwhile, the feature race at Wagga has been reduced in numbers to five for the Darryl Mclean MTC Life Member Handicap (1200m) where promising galloper Salute Again ($2 fav) resumes racing.
Salute Again has only raced three times in the past 12 months and did look the part winning a recent trial at Gundagai.
The race fit Northernero ($4) is a prolific winner who dug deep in his reserves to win on a very wet track at the Wodonga Cup meeting.
Jockey John Kissick will ride the well performed galloper as he continues his return to the riding ranks after many interruptions and delays to his riding due to back problems.
"My back is as good as it has been and getting a few winners has bene great and getting higher weighted rides from trainers like Dan McCarthy (Northernero's trainer) always helps," he said.
Kissick has ridden four winners since his return including three aboard Solvere and the latest with Quinlan at Albury on Saturday which have all been for the McCarthy stable.
Wagga's last meeting of the year will be held on Friday 22 December where the Ted Ryder Cup is the feature race.
