Battle-hardened duo head charge for in-form Hardy stable
Underrated Coffs Harbour trainer Joanne Hardy is banking on boosting her solid start to the season with a successful raid on Tuesday's feature Grafton meeting.
Hardy is having a good run that has netted three winners and six placings from her last 18 starters.
One of her "anchor" gallopers, the vastly improved tough six-year-old Real Time Warrior, can add to that streak and go back to back in a benchmark 66 over a testing 2370m to open the meeting.
Joanne Hardy heads north to Grafton today hoping to add to her good start to the season.Credit:Jenny Evans
Real Time Warrior is something of a course specialist and firm track lover. Five of the gelding's seven career wins have come at Grafton, and it seems heading north up the freeway is a pure recipe for success.
Real Time Warrior surged home here three weeks back for a dominant win in a similarly graded race. Despite rising 2kg in weight, he again looks hard to beat from an ideal trailing draw.
His likely biggest danger is Gold Coast-based perennial market favourite Urbino, which is out to bounce back after failing to down Zellymay in a class 3 at Kempsey over a shorter trip.
A one-time punters nightmare when continually being rolled as an odds-on favourite, UK-bred six-year-old Urbino had won two of his previous three this prep and will be suited getting back out over the longer journey.
Hardy's other big hope is consistent five-year-old Lose The Snip, who rarely runs a bad race and lines up in a strong open handicap over 1410m against some battle-hardened rivals.
Lose The Snip backs up quickly from finishing close-up in a class 5 at the Gold Coast having been an impressive benchmark 87 winner at Lismore three runs back.
A natural on-speed performer, he will need to find his best against big-finishing seven-year-old Tivoli Street and perhaps the most naturally talented horse in the race, former North Queensland five-year-old Magic Wu, which is now with the Owen Glue stable in Lismore.
Supplied by Racing NSW