Young couple Chantal Turpin and Pete McMullen will call Sydney home for the next couple of months.
The emerging force in the training and driving ranks are spreading their wings to Menangle with a big team this week.
They will be based on course at Menangle preparing their team from the state of the art training facilities.
And they will arrive this week.
“We’ve been talking about making a run at Menangle for some time and now it’s time for action. We’re renting one of the barns for the next two months at this stage and depending on success, it could be longer.” Turpin said.
Currently, the young couple sits second in the Queensland state trainers premiership title with perennial force Grant Dixon leading the way by a clear margin.
They have prepared 52 winners for the season to date.
Spearheading their Sydney assault will be a pair of talented ex-kiwi pacers in Watch Pulp Fiction and Mattgregor.
Watch Pulp Fiction arrived in Australia last month and was responsible for an excellent first-up effort in the Gr.2 $50,000 Gold Coast Cup when fourth behind recently retired star Avonnova before winning easily against moderate opposition on Saturday night.
The Art Major five-year-old will be set for a number of events at Menangle during the upcoming Miracle Mile carnival.
Connections paid a hefty price for the richly talented entire and have even nominated him for the Victorian summer carnival features, the Victoria and Hunter Cups.
Mattgregor is a speedy four-year-old that has built an imposing record of 7 wins from 11 starts to date; all victories have come at Albion Park.
The Rob Roy Mattgregor gelding scored an impressive victory at the trials on Friday afternoon in a time of 1:55.3 at Albion Park while finishing off in a sub 27 final split.
“They’re the two main stays of the stable right now; we’ve got high hopes for both pacers and hopefully they can step it up a gear during this campaign. Obviously it’s going to be much harder for both of them but they deserve their chance.
“Their main asset is their speed, both are very fast horses. The style of racing in Sydney is vastly different compared to what we’re used to up here but we think they will fit in quite nicely given the right luck.
“We have a number of M0 type horses that have raced through their grades up here and they deserve their opportunity to win their M0 down here for the better prizemoney. At this stage, we’ll have about 10 horses coming down while another bunch will come down in the coming weeks.”
McMullen returns from a recent two week driving suspension.
The third generation horseman currently sits third in the state driver’s premiership behind Shane Graham and Grant Dixon with 55 winners to date.
Stable foreman Hayden Barnes will continue to operate their Patrick Estate stable while they campaign in Sydney.
The Turpin/McMullen team head south tomorrow (Tuesday).
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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