3 minute read
As tickets go on sale for this year’s $1.3m The Kosciuszko, Nowra trainer Michelle Ritchie is hoping someone out there is a fan of her front-running sprinter Blue Missile.
The gelding is the only shot Michelle Ritchie has at the rich country race, her other horse is a two-year-old, and she said it's important Blue Missile is ready to fire when he resumes in August ahead of the draw of the 14 ticket winners.
"It's the only way I'm going to get him recognised,'' she said.
"I have to get it right whatever I run him in first-up. I know it is hard for them to run that super duper race first-up but I have to have him primed.
"I don't think he ever runs a bad race, everything he does he puts in 110 per cent. He's a dry tracker, a wet tracker, whatever you throw at him he's going to put in."
Blue Missile came of age last preparation as he graduated from a Benchmark 58 win at Sapphire Coast to take out a Class 3 Highway and a provincial Benchmark 66 before Ritchie made a late bid to force into the Country Championships Final via the Muswellbrook Wild Card.
He worked overtime to find the lead and was still there fighting on the line beaten a length in third behind Plonka and Rothenburg, and the gelding bled during the race which adds merit to the effort.
"I thought if he got into the final of the Championships he would have gone really well,'' Ritchie said.
"He had every right to stop and run last in that Wild Card, he did all the work and he didn't lay down once.
"He probably needed to get into the Final to be noticed but I still feel he did enough."
The rising five-year-old has been back in work for about five weeks and Ritchie feels he's in for his best preparation yet, which is why she's keen to aim at The Kosciuszko.
He'll trial around the start of August and will likely resume in Sydney around two to three weeks before the Kosciuszko ticket draw takes place on September 9.
"When he was a bit younger he over raced badly, he was so green and knew nothing but I knew once he got older I'd have a nice horse,'' she said.
"I have to get him out there and get a trial into him, and take him to Sydney first-up to see if he can be competitive enough. I just think he is a genuine honest horse.
"I always buy Kosciuszko tickets and there are a lot of people who do follow him.
"Hopefully someone will want him. I do think he deserves a crack at it."
The $1.3m race, run on TAB Everest day at Royal Randwick on October 16, is exclusively for NSW country and ACT trained horses.
Fourteen winning tickets are drawn with each winning ticket sharing in the prizemoney for their nominated runner.
The $5 tickets can be purchased online via the TAB app, at TAB outlets, pubs, clubs and racecourses across New South Wales. Tickets, if you aren't a TAB account holder, can be registered at www.thekosciuszko.com.au.
