Trainer Alan Tubbs has “lost no faith” in his stable star Tee Cee Bee Macray despite three defeats to start his summer preparation.
The $400,000 Group 1 Eynesbury Victoria Cup at Melton (January 28) remains the goal, a race Tubbs won with the brilliant Melpark Major in 2008 with daughter Amy in the sulky.
“(The Victoria Cup) has always been the aim but we’ll only run in that if he shows us in the next couple of weeks that he’s up to it,” Tubbs said.
This time in Tee Cee Bee Macray has run narrow seconds to Major Secret and Young Modern at Melton and Ballarat, those runs split by a fifth in the Geelong Cup.
At each of those outings the five-year-old Ponder gelding has been restrained off the gate from wide barrier draws.
In fact bad barriers have plagued Tee Cee Bee Macray for his past 10 starts, with five back-row draws and five front-line starts from no closer to the pegs than gate five.
On Sunday at Horsham in the $70,000 Group 2 Wimmera Mail-Times Horsham Pacing Cup Tee Cee Bee Macray will again start from the back row, this time in gate 10.
Given his starting positions Tee Cee Bee Macray has deliberately been driven as a sit-sprinter by star reinsman Greg Sugars, Tubbs explaining there was no point forcing the pacer to work double-time outside rising stars – such as Ideal For Real – for entire race distances before he was ready.
But his last-start second at Ballarat in the Lightning Mile, when three-wide for the bulk of the last lap in 1:53.4, was brave.
And Tubbs says he is far from a one-trick pony. He says Tee Cee Bee Macray is developing the tools necessary to take care of business from anywhere in the run.
“Greg (Sugars) let him come out a bit last start at Ballarat (in the Lightning Mile) from barrier five but he just couldn’t get in. When he gets the opportunity I don’t think he’ll have any trouble holding them out when he draws underneath (his major rivals),” Tubbs said.
“His run at Ballarat started to show he’s getting tougher and doing it properly.”
Sunday’s Horsham Cup, a leg of the Own the Moment Trots Country Cups Championship, has attracted a stellar line-up.
Victoria’s leading trainer Emma Stewart will line up in-form duo Major Secret (gate two) and Young Modern (gate seven).
Last-start Cobram Cup winner Cruz Bromac oozes x-factor from the Dean Braun camp and, while he needs to show every bit of his brilliance to overcome barrier 11, he broke the clock last outing and made very good horses look like B-graders in doing so. He also has the services of champion reinsman Chris Alford.
Parwan duo Craig Demmler and Jodi Quinlan combine with top-class five-year-old My Kiwi Mate in gate nine. His last-start second to Cyrus was exceptional when you consider where he came from in the run and the fact they got home in 55.8 for a 1:51.9 mile rate.
Trainer Kerryn Manning and husband, and driver, Grant Campbell will line up impressive six-year-old Ideal Success from Great Western in barrier three after his Stawell Cup triumph earlier this month, while Cobram and Boort Cup hero from last season Kotare Roland has drawn the pole, last season’s Geelong Cup winner It Is Billy has barrier four, veteran cups specialist Uncle Wingnut gate five, popular gelding Chilli Palmer – on debut for Pipers Creek horseman Tony Xiriha – is in gate six, and Adam Kelly-trained Five Star Anvil is drawn for a soft run inside the back row.
The Cup is Race 7 on an eight-event card, with a start time of 5.44pm..
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