Cranbourne trainer Matt Brown would love nothing more than for his talented galloper Prix De Turn (NZ) (Turn Me Loose) to gain a start in the Caulfield Cup by winning the Gr.3 Coongy Cup on Wednesday but said he faces a battle on two fronts.
Firstly, he will have to defeat the weather Gods as wet tracks had been the bane of his existence this campaign, then if the rain didn’t eventuate Brown said Prix De Turn then had to take on a field with a lot of depth.
As it stands Prix De Turn, who gave Brown his biggest win in his career when he won the G2 Alister Clark Stakes in March, is 27th in order of entry for the Caulfield Cup and the only way he could gain a run is by winning the Coongy Cup, which carries an exemption from the ballot for the winner.
“He’s obviously got to be pretty good on Wednesday but we want to give him his chance. Hopefully it’s on a firm deck but it looks as if that will be touch and go though,” Brown said.
“We’d like to see him get his chance to see where he stands.”
Brown sent Prix De Turn for a spell after he won the Alister Clark Stakes with the plan to target spring features.
He has had three runs this time in and has had to contend with wet tracks each time.
Prix De Turn finished fourth at Moonee Valley in two starts over 1600 metres to begin his campaign before he finished seventh of eight runners in the JRA Cup over 2040 metres.
“It’s been a bit of a disaster. The best track of the lot was first-up and he got caught up in behind them and just followed them around,” he said.
Brown said if Prix De Turn didn’t win the Coongy Cup but still ran a great race they would consider paying the acceptance fee for the Caulfield Cup if there was a chance he could get into the race.
He said if the son of Turn Me Loose could get into the Caulfield Cup backing him up wouldn’t be a problem.
“While there’s not many imports this year we thought we’d have a crack. He’s going to be better as a five-year-old but we’re trying to see whether he can shape up,” Brown explained.
