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Following a dominant victory in a recent maiden handicap at Dubbo, French Marine is ready to take the next step in the John Oxley Motors Benchmark 58 Handicap at Port Macquarie on Monday.
The son of Epaulette has always shown plenty of promise and this was demonstrated with four provincial trial victories before being sent to the barriers as one of the favourite runners when debuting at Newcastle in February.
The Kris Lees-trained gelding raced ungenerously when beaten around three lengths behind Ballistic Moon on that occasion but did benefit greatly from the outing when finishing over the top of Our Cousin Al and Raised to the Max to break his maiden status in emphatic fashion at Dubbo last month.
French Marine became bottled up in the centre of the pack at his most recent effort at Dubbo a fortnight ago in a similar class event behind Patrick May and should figure prominently in this latest assignment with luck and galloping room.
It is significant that the Lees stable has engaged Aaron Bullock for the mount with the prominent rider enjoying a great run of success in recent times and has already raced to seventy wins in the current riding season.
The obvious danger in the event is Faatinaat who is poised to continue the great run of success enjoyed by the training establishment of Bob and Glen Milligan. The Mulaazem filly was responsible for an outstanding victory at the track two starts ago with her recent run resulting in a solid placing behind Too Good to Be Tru last week.
The Milligan family had a great day at the recent Port card with a treble and are looking to repeat the success on Monday's card. Lookonchina is trained at Coffs Harbour by Sally Taylor and looks to be hard to beat in the Carlton Dry Maiden Handicap following a strong second behind Moringa's Hiemie upon resumption from a spell of five months.
The son of Whittington deserves to break his maiden status after three placings in a short career with the last start effort full of promise after showing early speed.
Essoess handled the heavy track conditions at Taree with distinction when the Mark Minervini-trained gelding scored narrowly a fortnight ago and the improving track conditions should provide the necessary advantage for the son of Choisir in the fifth event.
