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Stephen Autridge and Jamie Richards have domestic Group One ambitions for Jimmy Rea next season and an upcoming trip to Queensland is part of the comeback process for the five-year-old.
The Matamata trainers have taken charge of the son of Thewayyouare from Te Akau’s Singapore trainer Mark Walker, who prepared him to win six of his 13 starts before he was side-lined.
“He’s a very good horse who got injured and that’s why he came home and he’s in really good order again,” Richards said.“He’ll have a jump-out at the Gold Coast next Tuesday and there’s a Benchmark handicap for him at Eagle Farm on the 27th. Hopefully then he’ll run in the Hinkler Handicap, a Listed race worth $A100,000 on Stradbroke day.
“We want to give him a bit of racing and we didn’t want to do that at home on the really heavy tracks.”Jimmy Rea, who is raced by his breeder Kevin Hickman, is seen as an ideal type to challenge for major sprint honours next preparation.
“We think he’s a Railway, Telegraph and NRM Sprint type of horse,” Richards said. “He ran second in the Singapore Guineas as a three-year-old, but there’s no plans at this stage to get him up to a mile again.”Jimmy Rea will be accompanied on the flight to Brisbane on Thursday by stablemates Hall Of Fame, Melody Belle, Splurge and Zambezi Warrior.
Already in Australia are Heroic Valour, who runs in Saturday’s Gr.3 Gold Coast Guineas, and Gr.1 Queensland Guineas hopeful Shocking Luck, who ran second at Ipswich on Monday.“Heroic Valour worked very well here on Tuesday morning and it was a good run from Shocking Luck on a tricky track,” Richards said.
“He’s a long-striding horse who will improve when he gets up to 2000 metres. He’ll run in the Rough Habit next and we’re confident he’ll get a start.”