High expectations for Bare Naked Lady on home turf
Trainer Tracey Bartley is sure he has made the right choice by kicking off Bare Naked Lady’s Scone Guineas campaign at Wyong on Thursday.
Bartley had accepted at Gosford a day earlier, but felt the NBN News Handicap (1100 metres) on her home track was a better fit as he plots a path to next month’s Scone carnival.
‘‘It looked an easier race and she has a 1.5kg lighter,’’ Bartley said. ‘‘I can’t fault her, she was flying last prep and she was actually going to Melbourne, but she got hurt on the float so I had to put her in the paddock. She has plenty of residual fitness and has had one trial back and she’s ready to go again.’’
Bare Naked Lady won the two-year-old Inglis Challenge at last year’s Scone carnival and showed she’s a horse on the way up, chasing home Rosina Kojonup at Warwick Farm in December before a spell.
Bartley is enthusiastic about the preparation ahead and said jockey Tim Clark gave a glowing report from her barrier trial at Gosford on March 26 where she finished a close second to Reginae.
‘‘The winner had a good shake-up and we just gave her a nice trial without knocking her about,’’ he said.
‘‘Tim said she felt enormous and felt he was going better than the winner. She has a fair bit of upside. There’s exciting times ahead for her.’’
Another local, Trumbull, trained by Kim Waugh, is the favourite, while Bare Naked Lady is considered the major threat.
The path to the $300,000 Inglis Guineas (1400 metres) on May 11 will take Bartley to the Hawkesbury metro meeting on April 27, but he revealed she won’t contest the Guineas there, instead aiming at a 1300-metre benchmark race.
‘‘I won’t throw her in the Guineas at Hawkesbury because the run over the 1300 is what she’ll need and puts her in good rhythm to go to Scone,’’ he said.
Supplied by Racing NSW