Neil Evans
A still lightly raced country mare is out to steal the headlines from more highly credentialed metropolitan-based rivals when she tackles a competitive race at Thursday’s Wyong meeting.
Grandini, a noted big-finishing five-year-old in the Rodney Northam stable at Scone, will jump at healthy odds tackling an open Benchmark 64 Hcp over 2100m to close the program.
On a drying surface and likely Good 4 rating, she opened around $7.50 across early betting, and could prove the best value runner all day, maintaining her current level of momentum and improvement.
A daughter of Toronado with 21 runs under her belt, Grandini won only her third race two starts back, flooding home late to beat a BM 58 field at Muswellbrook over 1750m.
She then stepped up to BM 64 level over 2100m at Gosford, and was stiff not to win, surging home late to miss by a nose after covering plenty of ground.
Now she tackles an even deeper BM 64, with a couple of runners having tasted the much more daunting challenge of Group 3 action.
Both six-year-old mare California Grass and three-year-old filly Luna Bay were beaten a long way at Group 3 level over the Sydney autumn carnival.
California Grass in the John Thompson yard failed to beat a runner home in the Group 3 Epona Stakes (1900m) at Rosehill before rebounding with a tidy second placing in a BM 68 at that track.
Luna Bay from the Richard and Will Freedman stable was beaten a long way last start in the Group 3 Adrian Knox (2000m) at Rosehill behind Profoundly, who then ran a fighting second place in last Saturday’s Group 1 Australian Oaks over 2400m.
Naturally both those gallopers back at provincial level will be among a group fighting for favouritism, including Dolce Dior who finished right behind California Grass at Rosehill 10 days ago, and Aussie Nation, a last start winner over Grandini at Gosford.
On a strong card, the most intriguing battle has been saved for last, with those four runners all close in early betting, headed by California Grass on the $4.70 line.
Grandini will likely be freshened up for the two-day Scone carnival next month if she can cause an upset at Wyong.
Supplied by Racing NSW
Full form and race replays at racingnsw.com.au
