Thursday 4th June 2015
Multiple Gr. 1 winner For A Reason will resume on Saturday night in the Golden Mile at Tabcorp Park Menangle. The son of Art Major won his last race on the 1400 metre track in November 2013 when he won the Nick Robin FFA in 1:49.4. In his last five defeats at Menangle, Beautide has beaten For A Reason home and driver Luke McCarthy confirmed he was expecting the dual Inter Dominion winner to be in the race this week.
“I thought Beautide was going around and would start $1.30 favourite which would have meant he would have had the hype on him and therefore we could go into the race as the underdog but that is not the case,” said McCarthy.
“For A Reason had a month off after the Inter Dominion, he’s getting older now so you can’t turn him out for too long otherwise it gets too hard to get him back to the track but he seems really well within himself so hopefully he runs a good race.”
After opening a $1.75 favourite with TAB for Saturday night’s feature For A Reason has eased to $1.95.
“We trialled him at Menangle privately last week and he trialled really nicely, he’s forward enough to start racing but I do think he’ll need a couple of runs to get back to peak fitness because he is an eight year old stallion.
“The plan was to take him to Queensland but we are leaning to just keeping him here in Sydney because if Beautide goes and he is in good form and Smolda goes there too, they’re going to be terribly hard to beat.
“We might just stay at home but we will wait to see how it plays out over the next month.”
Despite spending time at stud McCarthy believes For A Reason is still enjoying his time on the racetrack.
“It is probably the happiest we’ve been with him, he’s really sound, it will be nice to get him back racing in the Golden Mile this weekend.”
For A Reason is one of two drives McCarthy will have at Menangle on Saturday night with his other being last start winner Mister Jay Cee in race two for trainer Dick Baverstock.
Harness Racing NSW (HRNSW) is the controlling body for harness racing in New South Wales with responsibility for commercial and regulatory management of the industry including 31 racing clubs across the State. HRNSW is headed by an industry-appointed Board of Directors and is independent of Government.