Eagles Nest Egg has flown his Victorian coop to swoop on a lucrative ‘hutch’ in Tassie.
Trained at Lara by Brendan Pursell, Eagles Nest Egg will contest tonight’s Group 2 Launceston Cup (515m).
But he’ll need to be at his unflappable best to be at the top of the ‘pecking order’. He matches ‘wings’ with two local stars in the $40,000-to-the-winner final – fastest qualifier Quick Joey Small (29.38sec) and Wynburn Sheean (29.63sec).
“All you can do is win,” Pursell said of his young star’s 29.66sec heat win. “But he did go a little backwards on his 29.46sec trial.”
Pursell is also concerned with the way the box draw panned out, with Eagles Nest Egg receiving Box 3.
“Quick Joey Small (Box 2) goes hard right, so it’s all going to be about the start,” he said. “But he’s now been here two weeks and has settled in a lot better.”
A winner of nine races from 20 starts and $45,400 in stakes, Eagles Nest Egg was a finalist in last month’s G1 National Derby (520m) at Wentworth Park in Sydney.
“He’s in good order… He’s going as well as when he made the National Derby,” Pursell added.
TAB assesses the race as a three-way tussle, with Wynburn Sheean holding sway at $2.90, just ahead of Eagles Nest Egg ($3.00) and Quick Joey Small ($3.60).
The G2 Launceston Cup final is Race 6 at 8.59pm.
