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Leading Tasmanian trainer Scott Brunton has nominated the $7 million Golden Eagle as the primary spring target for his young stable star The Inevitable.
Brunton, faced with a testing 12 months due to the closure of Hobart’s Elwick track for a rebuild, will be launching his spring assault from Victoria with the majority of his top end team now based at Cranbourne.
They include his classy veteran Hellova Street, a 10-time stakes winner among 18 race wins who is set to resume at Flemington on Saturday in a heat of the Winter Championship.
Rising Dundeel 4YO The Inevitable, winner of five of his seven starts including the G3 CS Hayes Stakes (1400m) at Flemington in February, will join Brunton’s Cranbourne team this month.
Brunton said he will be plotting a path to the Golden Eagle (1500m) at Rosehill in November for The Inevitable, who was spelled after finishing eighth in the G1 Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington on March 2.
"We will pick a path through to Sydney," Brunton said.
"He spelled very well and looks terrific. He is only little but he's come back a better individual.
“He's got a big future.”
Brunton is not happy about the management of Tasmanian racing and the impact the closure of Elwick will have on his team of 65 horses based at Seven Mile Beach near Hobart.
With the Elwick track out of action the closest turf track for trials and racing is 200km away at Launceston but that course has now gone into winter recess meaning Brunton is faced with a 280km one way trip to race on Devonport's synthetic Tapeta track.
"Every year they have to shut down Launceston but this year is different without Elwick,” Brunton said.
"Grass track racing is shut down for the next four months and we are stuck racing on the synthetic of Devonport.
“With no track in Hobart they didn't really put any thought into it. That's a disappointing outcome.
"There has been very little compensation. We are getting $100 a horse per trip which is nothing when you have to travel horses three and half hours to even trial.
"In my opinion synthetic racing is a necessary evil. You shouldn't be forced to have five months of it."
