The clock is running down on Kelly Coe’s (NZ) (Proisir) current campaign and she is in the right order to take advantage of favourable conditions at Trentham on Saturday.
The Proisir mare will head a trio of in-form representatives for trainer Ashley Meadows when she takes her place in the Richard Simpson Contracting Handicap (1600m).
Kelly Coe will appreciate the rain-affected ground at Trentham and hasn’t missed a beat in her lead-up to her bid for the fifth victory of her career.
“I can’t fault my mare, her work has been terrific this week and she does try really hard,” the Awapuni-based Meadows said.
“While she is down in the handicap, we’ll keep her to races like this and she will be well-placed in the autumn with the jar out of the tracks.
“Once the tracks start to firm up I’ll back off her and there will be some nice races for her later on.”
While Meadows is delighted with Kelly Coe’s progress, he has a healthy respect for race rival and dual stakes winner He’s A Doozy.
The Lisa Latta representative claimed the Gr.3 Thompson Handicap (1600m) on the course before he added the Gr.2 Coupland’s Bakeries Mile (1600m) to his record in the spring and was a recent trial winner.
“Obviously, He’s A Doozy is a very good horse but he’s got 62kg and if you take him out of it I think it’s pretty even,” he said.
Kelly Coe, who will be in receipt of 8kg from the topweight, has made her last two appearances at Otaki and was successful in a Rating 75 event before she stepped up to open company to finish runner-up on Boxing Day.
Meadows will also be represented on Saturday by the in-form pair of McKhan in the Spreading Rural Bulk Handicap (1400m) and The True Believer in the NZB Karaka 2023 Trainers’ Series Handicap (2200m).
McKhan still has improvement to come, but the son of Mongolian Khan showed his raw talent at his most recent outing where he broke his maiden at Otaki by a wide margin at his fourth outing.
“He was impressive and he’s still a work in progress though and mentally isn’t there yet,” he said.
“We’ll get through Saturday and then see where we go with him. Eventually, he’ll get over a bit of ground, but he can pull a bit and hence why he’s running over 1400m.”
A son of The Bold One, The True Believer is also still on a learning curve and has appreciated a step up in trip to win a middle-distance maiden at Wanganui before a runner-up finish over 2100m at Otaki.
“I don’t think the penny has dropped with him yet and he’s quite a dumb horse really, but he’ll come right,” Meadows said.
“He’s racing out of his grade as there isn’t anything else suitable for him so he has to step up.”
The current star of Meadows’ racing team is Inmyshadow, who will make one more appearance ahead of a tilt at the Gr.3 NZ Campus For Innovation & Sports Wellington Cup (3200m) on January 28.
“He’s doing really well and is on target for the Cup. He will go to the Trentham Stakes (Gr.3, 2100m) on Saturday week and he should be competitive,” he said.
Inmyshadow enjoyed a break following his close second in the Gr.3 New Zealand Cup (3200m) and, on his return over 1600m at Otaki this week, the Ferlax gelding was doing his best work late to finish an encouraging sixth.
