Our Nkwazi ready for in-form Mathrick yard
Cranbourne trainer Shawn Mathrick is hoping his recent good fortune can spill over to a stakes race at Caulfield.
Last Saturday Mathrick pulled off a betting plunge when Adirondack scored in a $250,000 race at Caulfield and has followed up with longshot placegetters at Sale and Sandown with his only two runners since.
Mathrick saddles Our Nkwazi in the Listed Bel Esprit Sprint at Caulfield on Saturday.
Our Nkwazi is one of the outsiders but Mathrick insists the rising 10-year-old is going as well as ever.
“He’s had two trials,” Mathrick said.
“The first one was in one of our local ones at Cranbourne and it was the best he’s trialled for me which was surprising.
“I then gave him an official jump-out and we just let him go around.
“He’s a funny little horse and you have to be a bit careful with him, but I wish it was a thousand rather than being 1100 metres.”
Our Nkwazi has a habit of bobbing up at big odds and his best performances have come on rain-affected tracks.
He was successful at $51 at Moonee Valley in June and then scored at $10, again at Moonee Valley, in August.
It’s been 34 weeks since Our Nkwazi started, beating one runner home in a benchmark race at Rosehill.
Mathrick kept the gelding away from the firm summer tracks and has his eyes on an assault on the main sprint race of the three-day Warrnambool meeting, the Wangoom Handicap, on May 4.
“They usually get plenty of rain down there but again I wish it was a thousand-metre race,” Mathrick said.
“But it’s not so we’ll go with what we’ve got to go with.”
The Lindsay Park-trained Sheidel is the $4.80 favourite for Saturday’s sprint ahead of three-time Group One placed sprinter Under The Louvre at $5.
Mathrick plans to take Adirondack to the Darwin Cup meeting and said Our Nkwazi could be a travelling companion.