Trainer Kelvin Tyler is keeping a close eye on the weather in the deep south as he and daughter Aimee get ready for a big day of racing at Gore on Wednesday
The Tylers have ten runners engaged for the meeting, however how many will start on the day will be dependent on how much rain the course receives over the next 48 hours.
With the Track rating sitting at a Soft5 on Monday morning, Tyler was watching the rain beat down at his Riverton property with some trepidation that the Gore surface, about an hour way by road, might be copping it as well.
“We have a good team of horses engaged for Wednesday, but a number of them are in the early stages of their campaigns, so I don’t want to run them if it gets very testing and heavy,” Tyler said.
“The forecast is fairly mixed, but we’ve had some decent showers here at home this morning and I would think Gore might be getting something similar at some stage.
“As long as the track stays in the soft range most will go around but if it does get deep then I would say we will pull a few out.”
Tyler believes they do have the firepower to enjoy success on the day and nominates Pinhead in the Rating 84 1800m contest and So Much Mour in the Open 1200m as two of his better chances if the rain does come.
“Pinhead and So Much Mour are pretty smart when they get a heavy track to suit, so they won’t mind if we do get rain,” he said.
“So Much Mour probably needs a little further than 1200m, but on a testing track he comes into his own as he is very consistent and always tries very hard.
“Pinhead has been carrying some big weights around, but this week he gets in pretty well with just 54kgs on his back.
“He doesn’t have a great record on the track but just loves it wet so I think he is a good chance with rain around.”
Tyler is also looking forward to the resumption of promising mare Classic Diva who is back in New Zealand after a disappointing two-start winter campaign in Sydney with the Maher-Eustace team.
“We may have made a bit of an error with Classic Diva as she went across to Australia at the end of her campaign and didn’t really show her best,” he said.
“She also likes a slightly better surface and she struck some very testing conditions in both of her runs there and didn’t show her true quality.
“As long as the track is okay on Wednesday, I expect a cheeky run from her although she is just kicking off a new prep.”
Tyler is also expecting improved performances from some of the runners he took with him on a working holiday to Queensland during the winter, now they are back in familiar local conditions.
“It had always been a bit of a bucket list thing to take some horses to Australia and campaign over there,” he said.
“It was a real learning curve and while we didn’t get the results we may have wanted, I really enjoyed it.
“Horses like Dr Velocious just couldn’t get to grips with working on the polytrack at the Sunshine Coast, while a number of the team struggled with not having their own paddock to relax in after a race.
“Now they are back here and in familiar surroundings, you can see how much they have thrived and I expect most of them to turn their form around.”
Tyler is also looking forward to the summer with several stable runners ready to fire up over the next few months.
Photo: Race Images South
“We’ve got horses like Dunhill, Our Boy Ritchie and Lightning Jack back and nearly ready to go,” he said.
“Lightning Jack started well in Sydney for Annabel Neasham but his form tailed away, so we brought him back and he is a different horse.
“Dunhill is a top stayer in the making so we have some big plans for him over the summer while my old favourite, Our Boy Ritchie, has had a really good break after some injury niggles and he is thriving and running around like a horse half his age.
“When you have horses like that in the team it certainly gets you fired up and looking forward to what is on the horizon.”