HEATH CONNERS is sweating on a run for improving galloper Chasm at Caulfield on Saturday and declared Glowlamp primed for today's Thousand Guineas at the track. Glowlamp is prepared by the trainer's Warwick Farm-based father, Clarry, and the filly has been devoid of luck throughout its career.
"She kept running into Samantha Miss up there in Sydney and it makes a big difference not having her in the race," Heath Conners said at Caulfield yesterday morning. "Glowlamp has done enormous since she arrived down here and she has finally drawn a barrier."
Chasm beat the older horses in the Benalla Cup last Sunday week and is in danger of being balloted out of Saturday's DVD Cup.
"Remember, he won a race at Randwick over the carnival and we took him up to Brisbane but he got a virus," Conners said. "The vets couldn't work it out, the horse was knocking on death's door but we got him back and the Benalla win was against the odds."
Heading the weights for the DVD Cup is Colin Little's former The BMW Stakes winner Blutigeroo. Little said last year's WS Cox Plate winner, El Segundo, was due to return to the stable yesterday having undergone a lengthy rehabilitation program after suffering leg problems.
Oliver feels Rush
In the middle of riding work at Caulfield yesterday morning, champion jockey Damien Oliver called Francesca Cumani at Sandown to check on the progress of his UK-trained Caulfield Cup mount Mad Rush. Oliver will ride the invader for trainer Luca Cumani, having ridden Purple Moon to second in last year's Melbourne Cup for the stable.
"I'm pleased with the horse, I sat on his back last week and he gave me a good feel," Oliver said yesterday of Mad Rush, which will stay around for the Melbourne Cup. "I spoke to Francesca this morning and she said his work since then has been good, he's galloped well. Compared to Purple Moon they are of similar size and pretty much the same type of horse as well. Things are looking good." Oliver is out to equal the legendary Scobie Breasley's record five Caulfield Cup wins on Saturday, while he will ride Gallica in today's Thousand Guineas at Caulfield, with the filly out to become the 14th Edward Manifold Stakes winner to complete the Thousand Guineas double.
Caulfield Guineas-winning duo Michael Rodd and Mark Kavanagh combine in the Thousand Guineas with Cats Whisker on the back of the success of Whobegotyou last Saturday.
Snowed under
Darley trainer Peter Snowden watched on in amazement as he slipped Musket and Caymans "under the radar" at Caulfield trackwork yesterday morning. Snowden's Melbourne stables are at Flemington but he elected to take the pair to Caulfield for a "quiet look around" in preparation for their Melbourne debuts on Saturday.
"We got to Caulfield just as Weekend Hussler was working and there was a cast of thousands there," Snowden said. "It was unbelievable, like nothing I've seen at trackwork before. There had to be 50 cameramen there."
Kerrin McEvoy rode Musket, which will run in the David Jones Cup, while Caymans was ridden by a stable foreman as it prepares for the Winning Edge Presentations Stakes on Saturday. "They didn't do a lot, just went around steady for the experience more than anything," Snowden said.
Better to quit now
Brian Mayfield-Smith's 2006 Melbourne Cup third-placegetter Maybe Better has been retired after it was found to have bone chips following its inglorious effort when down the track behind Douro Valley in the Yalumba Stakes last weekend. Scans revealed two chips in his near fore fetlock as well as weakness in the cannon bone. Maybe Better retires with six wins from 29 starts and just under $1 million in prizemoney.
Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown has also been retired after a chunk of a foot was missing after a gallop in preparation for a Breeders Cup Classic start against superstar Curlin. Undefeated Arc de Triomphe winner Zakarva will also be retired to stud - the three-year-old filly will be mated with stallion Dalakhani.
Less is more for Luca
Luca Cumani is adopting the same method with Mad Rush this spring as he used last year when Purple Moon took on the Caulfield Cup in preparation for the Melbourne Cup, but he would draw the line at trainer Ross McDonald's bid for history with Weekend Hussler.
All going well, McDonald will attempt to win the Caulfield Cup on Saturday and the Cox Plate seven days later. After that the Mackinnon Stakes and a Melbourne Cup could await.
"I'm not being critical, but that wouldn't be my style,"' Cumani told London's Daily Telegraph . "Every country is different, but that [such an arduous campaign] would never be done in England."
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