Long range plans for Amanaat
Trainer Ben Currie is already thinking about winning a second Weetwood Handicap as vastly improved sprinter Amanaat faces his toughest task to date at the Gold Coast.
Amanaat will be chasing his sixth win in a row when he takes on the Benchmark 90 (1200m) field at the Gold Coast.
Currie won this year’s Weetwood with Col ‘N’ Lil who dead heated with Jumbo Prince in what is considered Queensland’s best provincial sprint.
He is typical of Toowoomba trainers who would rather win a Weetwood, which is run in April, more than any other race.
“Toowoomba trainers love have the bragging rights if we can win a Weetwood. This time I got half it but I think Amanaat is an ideal horse for the race,” Currie said.
Amanaat has had only six starts for Currie since being bought cheaply in Victoria, winning five and finishing an unlucky second in the other.
“Things didn’t go right at his first start for us at the Sunshine Coast. He really should be six from six for us,” Currie said.
He had considered keeping Amanaat in lower grades but was worried about the weights he was getting.
“Even with the three kilo claim last start at Doomben he had 58kg. He really is getting up where it hurts and he gets into Saturday’s race under the minimum after a claim,” Currie said.
“He has drawn very well but it didn’t really matter where he drew because he has so much early pace to get across and get a position,” Currie said.
The young trainer has just returned from a holiday in Hong Kong but the winners kept ticking over while he was away.
Before Friday’s Ipswich meeting, Currie was sharing the lead with Tony Gollan in the Queensland premiership with 62 winners and is well on the way to training more than 100 winners for the second season in a row.