Adrian Bott has cautioned punters to forgive Cross Talk’s (NZ) (Keano) first-up defeat as an odds-on favourite, convinced the gelding can rebound in the Gr.3 Newcastle Stakes.
The five-year-old led and was overhauled by Zeyrek over 1400m at Rosehill last month and stays at that journey for Friday’s feature, formerly known as the Newcastle Newmarket Handicap.
While Cross Talk had previously been undefeated fresh, Bott said those runs had been in lower grade races and the horse generally improved as he got deeper into his preparation.
“He does need a bit of racing to really hit form,” Bott said.
“I know he went down as favourite the other day and he may have looked, on the surface, a bit disappointing, but I certainly feel he is capable of bouncing back off that.
“He went through the grades fairly quickly last campaign so he was resuming in tougher grade. If you look at a couple of his first-up runs in previous campaigns, they were OK, but he was able to get away with it in lesser grade.
“That run the other day at Rosehill seems to have really brought him on and sharpened him up.”
Tim Clark will partner Cross Talk from barrier three and his 11 rivals include 2021 race winner Gem Song (Your Song) and former New Zealand mare Bellatrix Black (NZ) (Redwood), both prepared by leading local trainer Kris Lees who is attempting to win the race for the fifth year in succession.
The Newcastle feature is a traditional lead-up to the Doncaster Mile (1600m) and that is the race Bott and training partner Gai Waterhouse have set their sights on with Cross Talk.
“Definitely. That’s the preparation we’ve got in mind for him,” Bott said.
“He’d probably just had enough by the time he got to the Epsom (Handicap) last campaign. He was up for a long time through winter and we tried to hold him together but ultimately, he probably did a bit too much.”