3 minute read
Wyong trainer Brett Partelle takes two horses to his home track meeting tomorrow - and has made an interesting analogy about the pair.
Previewing their chances in the Ryans Metal Roofing Conditional Benchmark 68 Handicap (1200m), he described Rifles as a "noise hater" and Trust Me as an "ornament to the stable".
Aaron Bullock renews a successful association with Rifles, whilst Winona Costin will partner Trust Me for the first time in his 55-start career.
Partelle has won 11 races with the stablemates. Lightly raced Rifles has won three and eight-year-old Trust Me has been successful on eight occasions. The Partelle pair won't be strangers at the barrier either, having drawn the inside two gates.
Six-year-old Rifles didn't begin racing until late into his three-year-old season, and Bullock rode him at his first two starts when placed at Scone in June and July 2019.
He has ridden the Smart Missile gelding only once since, winning a 900m Benchmark 64 Handicap on him with 60kg at Newcastle in May last year.
"Rifles had injured a back foot as a young horse and spent six months locked in a box before he came to me," Partelle said.
"He hates noise and that probably had much to do with him being in confinement with music playing.
"He is a beautiful horse around the stables at home, and we've been training him a bit differently this time by putting earmuffs on him when he goes to the track. That has helped settle him in his work as he has been a horse who has liked to rock along.
"Rifles on his day is good enough to win a Saturday race in town, and I'm sure he will be very competitive in an open affair. But this race will really bring him to his peak, and he will maintain that for his next three or four runs.
"Rifles ran really well first-up at Gosford with 62kg and drops 2kg. And he won't carry much dead weight with Aaron being a heavyweight jockey."
Trust Me joined Partelle's team from a Sydney trainer after his first four starts, which included two placings at Hawkesbury as a late two-year-old.
"He has been a real ornament to the stable; a great bread and butter horse," Partelle said. "Trust Me has won some nice races, including the Kirby Handicap (1000m) at the Grafton carnival last year.
"He is getting on in years but wasn't far away at his last start at Gosford on New Year's Eve and isn't without a chance. We don't do a lot with him between races. He trots and canters and swims in the river."
Like Partelle, fellow Wyong trainer Damien Lane also has two representatives at the meeting – and both also are in the same race, though in a different event. Five-year-old Stays On Tour (Bullock) and first starter Fielding (Darryl McLellan) line up in the Great Northern On Tap Maiden Plate (1000m), and their trainer has made gear changes on them.
Stays On Tour, who is yet to win in 11 starts and is a new addition to the Lane stable, will race in a near side bubble cheeker.
Fielding, a three-year-old son of Deep Field, will race in both a lugging bit and stallion chain, and will also wear earmuffs to the barrier, where they will be removed. Fielding, an $80,000 purchase at the 2020 Inglis Melbourne Premier yearling sale, beat six rivals in an 845m trial on his home track on December 20.
The rail is in the TRUE position, and an improving Soft 7 rating was posted this morning.
