After a successful first up Darwin Cup Carnival, Alice Springs trainer Jess Gleeson is in line to win the feature race at Pioneer Park on Friday.
The $40,000 Ladbrokes Winter Series Final (1200m) for the 0-66 class takes place in the Red Centre during the annual Truckies Day meeting.
A new promotion introduced by the Alice Springs Turf Club, the Ladbrokes Winter Series comprised of seven heats from May 29-August 6 with horses qualifying for the Final based on a points system.
The winner of each heat picked up five points with three points on offer for second and two points on offer for third, while every unplaced runner picked up one point.
The highest qualifier naturally gained entry to the Final first, while in the case of horses tied on the same points the horse with the highest rating gained preference with the horse with the highest stake-money earned next preferred.
The trainer of the horse registering the highest number of points in the series – including the Final – would also end up winning $2000.
A similar concept was held in Darwin during the last wet season.
The winners of the heats of the Ladbrokes Winter Series in the Alice were as follows:
- Heat 1 – Travanti (Kevin Lamprecht) over 1200m (0-58) on May 29.
- Heat 2 – Bartolini (Phil Cole) over 1100m (Class 2) on June 5.
- Heat 3 – Colhoun (Phil Cole) over 1100m (0-64) on June 19.
- Heat 4 – Harbour Express (Lisa Whittle) over 1100m (0-58) on July 3.
- Heat 5 – Intercontinental (Greg Connor) over 1100m (0-54) on July 17.
- Heat 6 – Sedona (Phil Cole) over 1200m (0-64) on July 24.
- Heat 7 – Travanti (Kevin Lamprecht) over 1200m (0-54) on August 6.
Gleeson is suddenly in the spotlight as she has taken over from Phil Cole as trainer of Bartolini, Colhoun and Sedona, and all three are expected to run a competitive race on Friday.
“Phil’s gone away to Birdsville with a team, so the horses got shifted over to my stable,” she said.
“I don’t think it will be temporary, it all depends how they go and there might be another run for them – but they’re probably not far off going to the paddock anyway as they’ve been up for a while.
“Phil rang me up and asked me to care for the horses – I know Phil pretty well.
“They’re three pretty handy horses, so I can’t complain.
“Sedona has a big weight of 60.5kg in the race – he’s only a small horse.
“He rises 3kg from his last start win.
“Bartolini has drawn pretty handy – it’s his first time in this grade.
“He’s young, he’s only just gone four.
“Lightly raced, he’s probably the one I would pick – he’s in good order.
“Wayne Davis on board too – he loves that horse.
“The other one Colhoun, he’s not a bad horse either.”
Darwin-based jockeys Adam Nicholls and Casey Hunter will fly south to ride Sedona and Colhoun, respectively.
Before arriving at the Cole stable Bartolini, a gelding, raced for Chris Waller, six-year-old gelding Sedona raced for Peter and Paul Snowden, and seven-year-old gelding Colhoun raced for Darwin Cup winner trainer Rob Gulberti from Western Australia.
Former Alice Springs trainer Sarah Robbins, who is now based in Queensland and returns to ride as an apprentice jockey in the Red Centre on Friday, also trained Colhoun at Pioneer Park.
Bartolini, who has won his past three starts, was a $3.50 favourite with online bookmakers in the nine-horse field on Thursday night, so Gleeson has every right to feel optimistic.
However, she is taking nothing for granted and expects big things from Lisa Whittle stablemates Liberty Blue (Sonja Wiseman) and Ananagram (Paul Denton).
“There are six last start winners in the race,” Gleeson said.
“It will be a tough race.”
Those half a dozen horses to taste victory at their last appearance include Bartolini, Sedona, Liberty Blue, Travanti (Ianish Luximon), Intercontinental (Jessie Philpot) and the Greg Connor-trained Me Cabo (Dan Morgan).
Gleeson appears to be a fan of the Ladbrokes Winter Series adding that all seemed to run smoothly and agreeing that the $40,000 purse made the concept even more appealing.
As mentioned, Gleeson did enjoy unqualified success during the recent Darwin Cup Carnival and was asked if she had recovered from the experience.
“Just about,” she laughed.
“Darwin was great – geez we had a great time.
“We had a good run up there.
“I didn’t think we were going to come out with four winners, but I’m not complaining.
“I thought they’d run well and I was very happy with the horses.
“Dataset won two and Devil’s Temptation won the weight-for-age.
Glock won the Montgomerie Lightning, but he also finished second in his first start over 1100m at 0-70 level.
“I took a maidener Above Everage, he didn’t work out, and I took Handball, he didn’t work out either.”
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