Brilliant short courser On The Rocks makes her keenly anticipated Wentworth Park debut tonight but a trial mishap has trainer Donna Campbell unsure of how strongly her bitch will run the 520m.
On The Rocks, who has had nine wins and two seconds from a dozen provincial sprints, has box one in heat two of the Ladbrokes Bitches Only Stakes.
"She knows her way around the track but while I'm confident On The Rocks will lead for a long way I'm not certain how strongly she will get to the line,'' Campbell said.
"I recently gave her a post-to-post hand-slip at Wentworth Park and she went really well, clocking fast time of 24.18.
"I took her back to Wenty last Wednesday and trialled her out of the 520m boxes but she virtually caught the lure.
"She is pretty nippy early and soon after the start of the trial she actually ran past the bunny.
"Then the lure shot a long way ahead of her so her time in the trial gave me no guide as to how strong she is over the distance.
"But she pulled up well after the gallop and is ideally drawn in box one.''
Arguably the three strongest nominations for the Ladbrokes Bitches Only Stakes are drawn to clash in heat four.
Vicki's Queen, unbeaten in three Wentworth Park starts, has box two, Nangar Gold, a Wenty winner who has won seven of 11 provincial races, has drawn four, and Red Hot Mouse, an impressive first-up cty winner last Wednesday, has box seven.
On times there is little separating the trio with Vicki's Queen clocking between 29.89 and 30.06 in her Wentworth Park victories, Nangar Gold being a 30.03 winner, and Red Hot Mouse recording 30.06 in her success last week.
She had box seven when she led throughout at Wentworth Park last Wednesday and trainer Hank Vanderburg said: "She runs as straight as a gun barrel to the first turn.
"Before last week Red Hot Mouse had just one trial at Wentworth Park and clocked only 30.35, so she improved plenty with the experience on the track.''
Trainer Carole Eaton's son Scott secured the superbly bred JILLIBY EMMIE as a potential brood bitch but after a moderate start to her career she has scored two wins and two seconds from her past five starts.
JILLIBY EMMIE has box three in heat three of the Ladbrokes Bitches Only, which looks the weakest of the five qualifying races.
Her only recent form blemish was when she fell at Wentworth Park on November 4, four nights after making the pace before finishing second to powerful finisher Night Tracker there.
"Because JILLIBY EMMIE is a daughter of Elfen Bale, who won $185,000 in prizemoney for Andrea Dailly, Scott jumped at the chance to get her,'' Eaton said.
"It took JILLIBY EMMIE a while to switch on to racing but with a lot of patience she has come good and is showing a nice turn of speed and railing well when she leaves the boxes.''
