Liberty Island ready to fire in South Grafton Cup

 

Bruce Hill
Bruce Hill

IN-FORM gelding Liberty Island is one of only two last-start winners heading into Sunday’s South Grafton Cup, but Gold Coast trainer Bruce Hill is refusing to let the weight of expectation burden his gelding.

The trainer may be pouring cold water on the horse’s chances, but there is little question the five-year-old is currently racing at its absolute peak.

Four of its last five starts have yielded a placing for the gelding, and its last-start victory at Ipswich was arguably the most impressive performance of its 32-race career.

Liberty Island is a (+900) chance at CrownBet.com.au to take out Sunday’s feature at Grafton.

The Statue Of Liberty progeny camped just off the speed three-weeks-ago and came off the leader’s heels late to record a commanding victory, but the trainer is not taking that as an indication that the $50,000 winners cheque will be coming home in his hands Sunday night.

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“He won well, but he didn’t really beat much,” Hill told HorseBetting.com.au.

“We’ll see how we go on the weekend… he went well coming out of that race, and has been good since.”

The main factor for Hill’s consternation heading into the listed race is the wide barrier.

The trainer will said he thinks the horse can win, but will need luck to do so.

“The only issue for me with him is the fact that he’s drawn a very ordinary alley.

“Kind of limits our options with what we can do, and we will need a bit of luck to slot in.”

Jumping from barrier 16 is limiting the options for the trainer heading into one of the most important races of the gelding’s career, but Hill is hoping that he can get a bit of luck from the car park.

“We’ll probably look to slot in somewhere, hopefully” the trainer explained.

“We’ll probably try and slot in somewhere and hopefully we an have a bit of luck in the run.”

The race looms as one of the most important events of the gelding’s career, and could very well become the launching pad for greater success.

Runners like Gold Horizon, Song Time and Gazza Guru have used the South Grafton Cup as a kick off point to bigger and better events, but Liberty Island’s handler is not prepared to look beyond Sunday’s race.

“We’ll just see how it goes with him I reckon,” Hill elaborated.

“We don’t have too much in mind for him, we’ll wait and see how he goes after Sunday.

“There’s no great plans for him, we just want to win races, that’s all.”

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