Robl hoping Centre Pivot can return to form of the past
IT may have been a year since Centre Pivot was successful on the race track, but trainer Peter Robl isn’t writing off his six-year-old in Saturday’s Villiers Stakes at Randwick.
The son of More Than Ready has had six unsuccessful starts since winning the Bernborough Stakes at Doomben, but among those starts included a sixth in the Group 1 Chipping Norton and a placing in the Listed Canberra Cup.
“As long as he runs a pleasing race and shows us he’s getting back to what his old form suggests he can do we’d be happy with him,” Robl said.
“We are going to the same race as last year (Stayers Cup) so we tried to keep a similar program with him, though he will run in the Summer Cup in a couple of weeks.”
Centre Pivot is currently a $51 chance at Sportsbet, but Robl is expecting the gelding to be more competitive than the odds suggest.
“He’s shaping up very well, he’s had a bit of time between runs and had a nice trial at Warwick Farm a couple of weeks ago,” he said.
Most of the money for the Villiers Stakes has come for the Gai Waterhouse-trained Fabrizio which is resuming from a spell after winning back-to-back races in Melbourne following a tough performance in the Group 1 Epsom Handicap.
“Fabrizio deserves top billing. He ran a super race in the Epsom and then came out and won his next two starts,” Sportsbet’s Will Byrne said.
“He has a great first-up record and the Waterhouse stable will have him primed for this.”
Fabrizio is currently the $2.80 favourite after touching $2.60 earlier in the week. The only other runner at single-figure odds is six-year-old Zabeel gelding Hazzabeel.
The Ciaron Maher-trained gelding won the Kilmore Cup before finishing second in the Group 3 Festival Stakes last start and it looks a great each way chance this Saturday.