3 minute read
Trainer Cameron Crockett is backing the ability of Mr Hussill to overcome a less than ideal preparation into Sunday’s $150,000 Newhaven Park Hunter & North West Country Championships (1400m) at Tamworth.
He's not letting the fact that Sunday's race is a 'big race' get in the way of preparing the six-year-old and, after withdrawing the horse from races at Randwick and Mudgee last weekend, doesn't believe taking it on first-up will be detrimental to his chances.
"I'm not going to panic and compensate because I think he's a good first-up horse and I've never seen the horse blow out in the run, he's always run through the line,'' he said.
"I feel like if he can run 1200m at Randwick on a heavy 8 off two years, off two trials, I'd be confident he can run 1400m at Tamworth off one trial with a shorter break in between."
The Scone trainer refers to the fact that he started his last preparation on the comeback from injury, a broken pelvis he suffered in winning at his third race start, that required a lengthy break.
Mr Hussill hasn't raced this time around since his gallant sixth, beaten 1.6 lengths by Art Cadeau, in the $1.3m The Kosciuszko back on October 16 and though he's only had the one trial Crockett says the horse is telling him he's in good order.
"Ideally we would have had a run going in but you've got to train the horse by his demeanour and the way he's moving and feeling,'' he said.
"I didn't want to be blindsided by fitness and not having had a run. If I turn up to Tamworth with a horse that's fit but not healthy and happy he's not going to run well anyway."
If Crockett has one question mark about Mr Hussill it's where he's going to end up in the run around track like Tamworth but he takes some heart from watching the horse trial there in the lead up to The Kosciuszko and is confident if he does get the breaks he can be in the finish.
"Is he going to have to do too much from the back of the field, because it's not really a track where you can ride for luck,'' he said.
"You may have to ride for luck but you don't normally get it and you don't have much time to get it.
"The part of the track that's hardest to manage is when you're going through your gears at the 600m to the turn and he handled that well (in the trial)."
Mr Hussill is $26 in TAB's all-in market on the $500,000 Final, run on April 2, while stablemate Commando Hunt ($34) will also take his chances at Tamworth and Crockett said his preparation has been perfect for what will be a tough ask in the Country Championships.
The four-year-old has contested two Highway races and the last start fourth behind Golden Point at Rosehill told Crockett he's on the right track fitness wise after having to do a lot of work from the back of the field took its toll late.
"He's not quite the class of horse of Mr Hussill so he needs a faultless prep,'' he said.
"He's going in against horses rated higher than him and he hasn't been exposed to them. He's the sort of horse that might get away with it with fitness if it was a heavy track.
"He was probably a bit luckless last time, but Kathy (O'Hara) did say the last 100m he'd had enough.
"With Commando Hunt it will come back to where he is in the run. If he's a bit steady away and gets back and has to make a long run I don't think he has a quick enough sprint to pick them up."
Crockett has been to the Newhaven Park Country Championships Final three times, the first with Iron Blue in 2016 who finished second in the Central Districts Country Championships.
Then in 2019, his last year training at Mudgee, he won the Central Districts race with Soul Secrets but that mare unfortunately wasn't able to contest the Final and had to be retired. Stablemate Ori On Fire took her place that year and finished ninth behind Noble Boy.
Last year Pure Fuego was runner-up to Spiranac in the Hunter & North West Country Championships and also finished ninth in the Final, behind Art Cadeau.
