Neil Evans
Sheโs becoming one of the iron mares of provincial and country racing, and Thursdayโs Wyong meeting will house her eighth start this campaign.
And for tough-as-teak Scone five-year-old Grandini, thereโs seemingly no sign of her taking her foot off the pedal.
The five-year-old daughter of Toronado has won two of her last four starts, and placed a further four times since her unplaced first-up run at Scone back on January 29.
Certainly, experienced trainer Rodney Northam would be the first to admit, the tougher the assignment the more Grandini seems to measure up.
She tackles a Benchmark 64 Hcp over 2100m to close another competitive betting meeting at Wyong, and again looks very hard to beat, with regular jockey Reece Jones in the saddle.
Grandini served notice four starts ago she had taken her game to a new level, thundering home from a mile back to beat a handy BM 58 field at Muswellbrook over 1750m.
Yet it was her return to the provincial circuit over longer trips that really saw the mare take off.
Only three weeks back in her first start at Wyong, she overcame what had been a constant on-speed bias to record the best win of her career at BM 64 level over 2100m.
Settling last, she circled the field very wide out over the last 550m, surging late to win by a long head.
Then eight days later she took on the feature Tamworth Mornington field at BM 85 level, and again charged home from near last to be beaten only a length into third place.
Connections have resisted the temptation to spell Grandini, such is her appetite and zest for racing.
Despite boasting a healthy strike rate of eight individual winners from its last 37 runners, Grandini is the Northam stableโs only representative at Wyong.
Yet she opened on the second line of betting around $4.20 behind progressive Chris Waller-trained three-year-old Sarapo at $3.20 who is out to snap a frustrating and somewhat luckless run of four straight placings against provincial and metropolitan opposition.
