By Jonny Turner
Don’t be surprised if Bluto has a swagger in his step ahead of the Kurow Cup at Oamaru on Sunday.
The Brent and Tim White trained pacer returns from a freshen up to take on a new challenge in the 2600m feature.
The three-year-old will face the standing start tapes for the first time after stepped away cleanly in a recent trial.
The White camp now hope Bluto can do the same under the pressures of race day.
“We had a good go with him on Thursday and he stepped away nice,” Tim White said.
“Obviously it is harder to do it at the races, but we are pretty confident that he can do things right.”
Bluto hasn’t raced since strolling to victory at Addington back in May.
But the White stable have him forward and ready to fire at Oamaru on Sunday.
“On his work he is as ready as we can have him,” White said.
“We gave him a bit of a break and he has done really well, he seems to have matured and he sort of thinks he is a bit better than most of them with the way he is getting around.”
Though he faces the toughest race day test of his career, there is no question in the White camp that Bluto is up to it.
“He is a horse we have had a lot of time for.”
“If he was able to step away and do things right, I’d like to think he would be hard to beat.”
The White stable have a strong line up of seven starters set to make an impact on Kurow Cup Day.
Among them is Franco Messi who comes into race 5 following a big effort for fourth in his last start at Ashburton.
The pacer missed away in his first standing start attempt in that race, but he has the chance to get his second attempt right on Sunday.
“He went a huge race at Ashburton, they went 3.01 from a stand (for 2400m),” White said.
“Hopefully after having a go at the stand he will be better for his second go.”
“He got a wee bit squeezed up with the big front line at Ashburton.”
“Hopefully he can get away and go another good race on Sunday.”
White has singled out Bobby Waterhouse as a cheeky hope among the stable’s remaining runners.
The pacer slots into a handy draw in barrier 3 in race 4.
“Bobby Waterhouse would be one to look out for, he has been working nice.”
“Kohli Trouble has worked up nicely too and he would be one to look out for going forward.”
Manners look the big key to the chances of Sassy Star and What A Star, while Prides Contessa looks an eachway hope despite a fair last start effort at Ashburton.
