Physicality faces city test in Inglis Dash

Physicality ridden by Jarrod Fry wins the HYGAIN Three-Years-Old Maiden Plate at Hamilton Racecourse on January 11, 2019 in Hamilton, Australia. (Pat Scala/Racing Photos)

The lure of a sales-restricted race for good prize money has prompted connections of recent debut winner Physicality to test the gelding in town for the first time.

The Symon Wilde-trained Physicality scored a hard-fought win in an 1100m country maiden at Hamilton and he is set to race eight days later in the $250,000 Inglis Dash (1100m) at Flemington.

Wilde said it can sometimes be hard to place three-year-old’s coming off a maiden win so he considered Saturday’s race, restricted to Inglis Sales graduates, as a logical next option for the gelding.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to run for that sort of money,” Wilde said.

“He’s had one start for one win and it doesn’t look ridiculously strong, so I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for a horse who was not bought for a lot of money to run in a race like that.”

Physicality, by Reward For Effort out of Jack’s Girl, was knocked down to Wilde Racing for $32,000 at the 2017 Melbourne Inglis Premier yearling sale.

The trainer retains a share in Physicality and said the three-year-old’s big group of owners were excited to have the gelding set to race at Flemington at his second start.

“They’re pinching themselves,” he said.

Physicality has nine rivals in the Inglis Dash including three other last-start winners while stakes-placed Thorondor and Ollivander are set to resume.

Wilde believes Physicality will have improved from the experience gained on debut when holding on to win narrowly against a small field.

“He will come on from that which he will probably need to but I thought it was a pretty good debut,” Wilde said.

“I think the others had their chance to beat him.

“I know he was stopping a little bit but he might have hit the front a bit early.”

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