"Antino will race like you saw him at Doomben Cup day on Saturday."
Antino is expected to run a big race in this weekend's Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) says trainer Tony Gollan.
The seven-year-old gelding has competed in two races so far this season, where he finished fifth in the Group 1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) and fourth in the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m).
Eight-time Group 1-winning trainer Gollan revealed that the son of Redwood will indeed be tackling the Turnbull at Flemington.
And guess what?
Gollan is extremely confident that Antino will run a huge race in the $750,000 Group 1.
“He’s right where he needs to be now,” Gollan said on SENTrack & RSN’s Giddy Up.
“He’s had his two runs back at 1400m and 1600m. He hasn’t won either but they’ve both been really good runs.
“He goes to the 2000m now, everything about him looks as though he’s peaking right up in his preparation now.
“He’s got the two runs out of the road that he needed. He’s going to be a real force on Saturday.
“It’s obviously a very good Turnbull, but he’s a very good horse.
“If we are realistic that he can be a Cox Plate horse, then he’s got to run well on Saturday and I’m sure he will.”
Furthermore, based off his first two runs, Gollan believes the Group 1 winner will run as good he did when he took out the Group 1 Doomben Cup (2000m) by 3.95 lengths.
“From all the data seeing with him, he’s tracking to run every bit as good as he did Doomben Cup day,” Gollan revealed.
“He’s nice and fit now and ready to go, so you can see Antino race like you saw him at Doomben Cup day on Saturday and going forward.”
Despite the Might and Power Stakes (2000m) being run next Saturday for more money ($1,000,000), Gollan admitted that he couldn’t afford to wait another week as it has already been three weeks since Antino’s last run in the Makybe Diva.
“I was happy with this, I think it’s been a good transgression,” Gollan said.
“We’ve been three weeks into this, I didn’t want to wait another week with him.
“Just the timeline of the prep suits me better.
“Yeah sure, there was another option, but when we kicked off in the Memsie I thought this was the better preparation.
“I really wanna have him spot on for these next three runs – the Turnbull Stakes, the Cox Plate (2040m) and the Champions Stakes (2000m).
“I’m really happy with him and I don’t think I’ve seen anything in his first two runs to suggest I can’t mix it with the better horses in this race Saturday.”
