Trainer Patrick Campbell keen on Hunta Pence & Scandalo
The Hastings trainer has the last-start winners Hunta Pence and Scandalo engaged on Saturday while Goodsav is the enigma of the team and hopes are pinned on a gear addition to bring out the best in the stakes performer.
Hunta Pence will step out in the Kamada Park Summer Cup (2400m) off the back of a 2100m victory at Otaki.
“For the last couple of months I’ve been looking at this race over 2400m to assess his chances of where we go in the future,” Campbell said.
“He’s been a bit highly-strung, but he’s starting to put it all together now.”
As a son of Shocking and a Savabeel mare, Scandalo has a pedigree to suggest he will be suited to longer trips but the opposite has been the case with all five of his wins over sprint distances.
He wasn’t extended to claim an open 1400m event on his home track on New Year’s Day and will tackle Saturday’s New World Hutt Valley Handicap (1000m).
“Type-wise, he’s a short-coupled horse and the way it’s turned out I haven’t thought beyond 1400m for him,” Campbell said.
“I’ve wanted to run him down the straight course for some time, he has a bit of trouble on the bends and changes stride.”
Goodsav, who was twice stakes-placed as a three-year-old, has been a source of frustration.
“She’s a funny horse and I wouldn’t say she’s not genuine, she’s inclined to star gaze all the time and loses concentration with horses around her,” Campbell said.
“I’ve taken the blinkers off her and put on a brow band and she’s been working very well so it will be interesting to see how she goes