The Cleaner with former trainer Mick Burles after winning his second Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes
I’m so over the Melbourne winter and longing for warmer weather. There’s not much sign of it over the coming week, but perhaps August will see an improvement.
One sign however that Spring is on the way is the race meeting at Caulfield on Saturday featuring the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes, which I used to regard as the first interesting race of the forthcoming Spring racing season.
This year it has attracted quite a good field that includes The Cleaner, the former tiger from Tassie who has not been at the track since running unplaced in the Cox Plate. There was some doubt that he would continue racing, with his old trainer Mick Burles being of the opinion that something was wrong with the horse. The Cleaner’s owners disagreed and sent him to Moe trainer Peter Gelagotis who also trains veteran galloper Mourinho. The Cleaner recently won a trial by six lengths, so perhaps he is not yet a spent force.
The Bletchingly Stakes is run over 1200 metres, so it is probably a bit short for The Cleaner and he also faces stiff opposition from the likes of Mahuta who strung together six consecutive wins last Spring and is a potential star of the turf. Others with good claims are Fast ‘N’ Rocking, Charmed Harmony, Lord Of The Sky, Odyssey Moon and the sole mare Runway Star who has good form in Adelaide.
Overall it looks a quite an interesting race, so I’m looking forward to heading off to Caulfield on Saturday to watch it.
The weather will hopefully be fine for the afternoon, though the track will be on the slow side.
I’m posting this entry early as tomorrow we have been informed by the Electricity Company that the power will be off from 8.00am to 3.15pm.
Horrors! No internet for a day. How will I cope?
Actually I’ll be able to use my iPad via 3G, so it’s not that dire, only a little slow.
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