3 minute read
Taree trainer Tony Ball is confident of keeping the winners coming at his home track when a seven-race meeting is held there on Sunday.
Tony Ball has been on fire at Taree recently, having scored a winning treble at the October 20 meeting, a single winner on October 6 and a double on September 24.
He has five runners at Sunday's meeting - Adamdeeant, Xtra Approval, Richattack, Cynic and Secret Keeper.
Ball said that with rain around and the potential for at least the sting to be out of the ground on Sunday it would suit Adamdeeant, which will contest the Kobayashi At Aquis Benchmark 66 Handicap over 1007m. Xtra Aproval is in the same race.
The course proper was rated a Good 3 on Thursday, with some rain about.
More rain is forecast for Friday and Saturday, with the possibility Sunday's meeting could kick off in the Soft 5 range depending on just how much rain falls.
Adamdeeant is versatile and has won on dry and wet tracks, but Xtra Approval's winning form is exclusively on wet tracks.
"They both like the wet and will be much better off if the track ends up a bit soft," Ball said on Thursday. "There's a bit of rain here today.
"Mollie Fitzgerald will ride Adamdeeant and Jeff Penza will be on Xtra Approval. Plenty of my horses like a wet track so I'm not bothered by the rain."
Ball said Cynic (race one) and Secret Keeper (race two) were in suitable races and that he expected both of them to run well.
"I've just been waiting for the right sort of race for Cynic and I've got that now," he said. "He needs the 2000 metres so I'm looking forward to seeing how he goes.
"Secret Keeper's not far off breaking through for his first win and getting up to 1600 metres on Sunday will help his chances of doing that."
Richattack (race three) was one of Ball's three winners at the last Taree meeting, in a Maiden event, and he is confident the five-year-old mare can step up to Class 1 over 1007m and immediately be very competitive.
But as the fifth emergency for the event she will need five scratchings just to get a run.
"She's pretty talented," Ball said. "I've only had her for six starts. Steve Hodge had her before. I've liked her since I first started working her and I'm not worried about the step up in class.
"I think she'll handle it really well if she can get a start in the race."
Ball said the efforts of his staff had a huge amount to do with his stable's recent great run of form.
"My son, Michael, is the foreman and he pretty much runs the show," he said. "Outside of Michael and myself I've got an all-female staff and they're tremendous. They do a fantastic job."
