Pride’s three-pronged Winter Stakes attack
Joe Pride has been the Listed Winter Stakes' (1400m) dominant trainer in recent years and he will have three shots at another win this year.
The Warwick Farm horseman will be represented by Cool Jakey (Pierro), Accredited (All Too Hard) and Poison Chalice (NZ) (Savabeel) in the $200,000 Listed event, which will be run at Rosehill this Saturday.
Pride won the race last year with Estadio Mestalla (Galileo Gold), three years after first winning it with Taksu (Equiano) and he is happy with the team he has assembled despite the prospect of a stronger-than-usual edition.
"They've been competitive these races this time of year, the winter noms this year have been really strong I feel, and that lead-up the other day (Civic Stakes) was a good, strong race," Pride said.
"I wouldn't expect it's an easy race, but they're competitive older horses."
Pride's trio are among 23 nominations with in-form Bjorn Baker-trained pair War Eternal (NZ) (Pierro) and Midnight Dynamite (Pierata) heading the list of potential rivals.
Pride has all bases covered with Poison Chalice a versatile performer on either wet or dry tracks but Cool Jakey is noted a wet-tracker, while Accredited saves his best for Good tracks.
Rosehill raced as a Soft 6 last Saturday but showers are predicted from Tuesday through to Thursday before sunny conditions on Friday and Saturday.
"A wet track would be lovely for him, he's an absolute swimmer," Pride said of Cool Jakey, who is coming off a third placing behind Midnight Dynamite in the Civic Stakes.
"But I've got him and Accredited and one wants it really wet and one doesn't, so someone will be really happy.
"The last thing you want is two who want the same thing because you know what will happen then."
Former Victoria-based Poison Chalice is second-up, having finished 12th beaten 6-1/2 lengths in the Listed Civic Stakes (1400m) at his first run for Pride, and he is keen to get another look at him.
"I think he's going to be a decent horse for the stable, I've just got to get in and around his head and see what makes him tick," he said.
Bred by Waikato Stud, Poison Chalice is raced by the Ultra Horse Syndicate after he was purchased for A$350,000 at the 2021 Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
