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He’s placed to perfection, weighted to win, and co-trainer Michael Freedman is adamant Prime Star won’t be beaten on the score of fitness in Saturday’s $300,000 Inglis Guineas (1400m) at Rosehill.
There are no gimmes in racing, especially in the post-Winx era, but with just 56.5kg and a rating of 98 Michael Freedman admits the Guineas looks tailor made for Prime Star, already the winner of almost $1.8 million, as he searches for a third career win.
"Just purely on benchmark ratings at the set weights it does set up well for him,'' Freedman said.
"They have still got to go out and do it but I thought his trial was good, Tommy (Berry) was happy with it, and he worked nicely on Tuesday.
"He's come up with a reasonably nice draw where it gives Tommy some options to park him where he feels comfortable. It looks like a nice race for him for sure."
The gelding had a few weeks off after he finished midfield in the Group 1 Randwick Guineas in March and showed Freedman he was ready with a trial win at Randwick last week.
Tommy Berry, who won the Inglis Guineas two years ago on Wild Planet, will have largely an open book to ride Prime Star, $2.90 favourite with TAB on Thursday, though the trainer is expecting the horse to settle in the first half of the field.
"He's one of those horses I think at that distance he can position anywhere in the first four or five depending on how the race is run,'' he said.
"Tommy does his own form so I'd leave it up to him but it'd be nice to park him in that first four or five.
"He went out a very fit horse, I don't think he lost much fitness in that time off. He had a nice solid trial and finished off in good style. I don't think fitness is of any real concern."
Prime Star, winner of the $2m Inglis Millennium last year, developed into a well above average three-year-old this season with placings at Group 2 level behind Peltzer and Aegon, plus the Bondi Stakes, and didn't disgrace himself finishing midfield in the Group 1 Randwick Guineas.
Freedman said that's a good platform to come back to a restricted race.
"He's matched it with some of the best three-year-olds, back in the spring against the likes of Peltzer then in the autumn where he ran a great race in the Hobartville and he wasn't far off them in the Randwick Guineas,'' he said.
"His run in the Guineas was a good run but he probably doesn't run out a really strong mile. Probably his best distance is around that 1200m-1400m and that's where his future lies.
"This race looked like a nice option for him coming up and if he runs well or can win it gives us some options looking towards Brisbane as well."
Meanwhile, Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside is nearing the end of his spell and is set to enter pre-training in less than two weeks.
There's talk the colt could be a potential Everest candidate but Freedman said the plan at this stage is to do a few weeks pre-training in Queensland before returning to Randwick in the second half of June.
He'll likely trial in August and not resume until early September.
"He's bulked up a little which hopefully is a good thing,'' Freedman said.
"I looked at him two weeks ago and he's done really well without getting fat. I think he's strengthened up in all the right places.
"He's certainly feeling well, he was running around his paddock the day I was there, and I love the fact he's been up in that nice warm weather for five weeks and he seems to be thriving on it."
