Gold Coast trainer Kacy Fogden thinks she’s working with a pretty good colt in Best Of Bordeaux but has one fear ahead of Saturday’s Group 3 Canonbury Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill.

“I’m a little bit scared of Chris Waller’s horse, Great Barrier Reef. I’ve heard a lot of good talk about it but my horse won’t disgrace himself,” Fogden said.

“He wasn’t quite ready to go to the races last preparation but he’s come up quite quickly and matured this time in.”

The Snitzel two-year-old is rated a $16 hope with Great Barrier Reef a very short $1.95 for a horse on debut.

Fogden expects Sam Clipperton to have Best Of Bordeaux on the fence behind the speed from barrier two.

“He’s probably not the colt who will jump as quick as some of them but he’s one of those colts that is full of running and he’ll muster speed pretty quickly,” she said.

“He’s a real natural runner. He’ll sit in just behind them.”

Fogden hasn’t waited for her horse to have a run before putting the blinkers on.

“I’ve had them up my sleeve and it’s now the time to pop them on and I think they’ll have the desired effect,” she said.

XXX

Highway specialist Terry Robinson thinks the barrier draw will decide which of his horses beats the other in the opening race at Rosehill on Saturday.

King’s Trust has barrier five for Tommy Berry and apprentice Tyler Schiller has to get the job done on Lord Desanimaux out of gate 12.

“King’s Trust has drawn good so he’ll probably be in front of the other horse in the run but they’re both very well placed,” Robinson said.

“Lord Desanimaux will be getting back but if there’s genuine speed on he’ll be hitting the line hard.

“Hopefully King’s Trust has a nice run in transit and he’s been going well.”

Lord Desanimaux ran down King’s Trust late when they met at Rosehill two weeks ago and has 3.5kg less to carry this time but it’s not enough for his trainer to have him as his best chance.

“At Rosehill you always like to draw well so I’ll lean towards King’s Trust who will be closer in the run,” Robinson said.

The stable’s best horse Art Cadeau isn’t far off coming back to racing after winning the $1.3 million Kosciuszko in the spring.

“He’s back in work and I’m looking forward to when he comes back to the races but he will be hard to place,” Robinson said.

“He’ll probably have a trial in couple of weeks then we’ll look for a race.”

XXX

The market says Anamoe is virtually unbeatable in Saturday’s Group 2 Expressway Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill.

The Caulfield Guineas winner is rated a $1.70 chance to win first-up even though he’s got a busy preparation ahead of him with his best yet to come.

His trainer James Cummings made a good case for his short price.

“I don’t think six furlongs is where Anamoe is at his best but he’s certainly got excellent form around the shorter sprints when you consider he’s a Merson Cooper winner, placed in a Blue Diamond and Golden Slipper,” Cummings said.

“At the moment, the forerunner of our targets would be the Randwick Guineas in March.

He’s matured again and he looks like the horse we need him to be to be progressing into the autumn, especially with a rather busy campaign considering he was restricted to just four starts last time in.”

Cummings will be trying to win another two-year-old race on Saturday and he concedes that Rakomelo has to behave ahead of the Canonbury Stakes where he’s rated a $12 chance.

Stablemate Ojai is rated a better chance ($6) in the Widden Stakes for the fillies.

“I liked the way she cruised round in an easy piece of work at Rosehill in the lead-up to this,” Cummings said.

“I think she’s forward enough to be winning but she’ll carry equal to the penalty of a Listed winner, so that doesn’t make it easy for her.

“She can run a good race and certainly indicated she can run a good race at Rosehill with that excellent effort in the Golden Gift last year.”

 

FIVE YEARS AGO

An early upset to start the day with the odds-on favourite Menari going down in the Canonbury to Pariah. Punters who took the shorts about Music Magnate in the Expressway were always looking good for a collect as Kerrin McEvoy steered Bjorn Baker‘s striking Written Tycoon son to an easy win over Kuro, Ball Of Muscle and three others.

TEN YEARS AGO

Not even the likes of epic Waller trio Shoot Out, Rangirangdoo and Danleigh could prevent a tidal wave, more a tsunami, of support for the Joe Pride trained Rain Affair whose record may not have been as good as those three when it was all said it done but he was a mighty splinter on his best day and this was one of them. Rain Affair by four!

TWENTY YEARS AGO

Ateates had a very fast half-sister in Ruffles whose highlight win came in the Newmarket up the straight in 1997. As for the Gary Portelli-trained Ateates, she never won a Group 1 race but she did the next best thing claiming four Group 2’s including the Expressway beating home two of her big-name Warwick Farm counterparts in Viscount and Tie The Knot.