Sweet dreams could be savoured on Saturday night for trainer Phil Chircop, who’s hoping to deliver loyal long-time owner John Dorrington his first Group success.
Sweet Louise will contest the Pryde’s EasiFeed three-year-old fillies final at 8.40pm, with their hopes of capturing the $200,000 Breeders Crown only buoyed by drawing the prized gate one.
Chircop joined Jason Bonnington on SENTrack’s Talking Trots this week and couldn’t help but be excited by his lightly raced Sweet Lou filly’s chances.
“Everything’s going to plan,” Chircop said. “And while she’s happy I’m happy. I’m just happy that I’m the one training her. It’s very easy to get up in the mornings.
“I’ve done my job best as I can trying to keep the horse happy all week. I haven’t done a great deal with her, she doesn’t need much more. Hopefully she’s got another good run in her, I’d love to win it, but more for the owners.
“The owners put a lot of money into the sport and never had a Group 1, 2 or 3 winner, so it would be a pleasure for me to turn that. (John’s) stuck by me, I’ve had a few accidents this year – a pretty serious one – he could have easily given Sweet Louise to somebody else, but with covid he said throw her in the paddock and we’ll look at races in three months’ time.
“He’s not only raced her, but he’s bred her himself. If I can be the first person to win him a Group 1, well I’d be thrilled for John Dorrington’s sake.”
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And the $1.90 favourite is every chance to do just that. While still fairly green, she has blossomed this campaign.
Having raced only once as a two-year-old she stepped out twice this summer before a spell, returning in September a different horse.
She broke through for her maiden win at Kilmore on October 1 and then won both her Breeders Crown heat and semi-final to burst into contention.
“I don’t know how good this horse is yet. I just said to my son, Michael, about four weeks ago, this bloody thing’s improving out of sight,” Chircop said.
“I haven’t had a horse work so good since I had The Warp Drive. She’s running the same time as good horses and doing it on her own and she’s lazy and runs all over the place. It’s going to take a good horse to beat her.”
Confidence was enhanced by Sweet Louise’s dominant semi-final, when she led and careered away in the 58.3-second last half, winning by 14 metres from Its Beaujolais.
“We were pretty committed to hold the lead, we had to find out where she is at ,” Chircop said.
“The mare keeps on improving every time she comes out. With the racing, it’s really helped her. At the moment I’m only working three horses, two young trotters and a pacer, so she works at home on her own. The racing’s got her fitter and her true ability’s starting to come out, even if she is still a bit wayward in the way she runs.
“I’ve tried to correct that, but sometimes it is what it is. She is her own woman, so I let her go with what she wants to do. She runs around a little bit, but there’s not much I can do about it. I’ve tried to straighten her up and she gets all cranky. So I said, ‘oh well, better to try and keep her happy’.
“That’s all I’m trying to do, just keep her happy and hope she can produce this week and hasn’t gone one run too soon.”
And when it comes to repeating the dose from gate one on Saturday, Chircop said he would defer to reinsman Chris Alford on whether she chases another all-the-way result.
“More than likely so, I just leave that to Chris,” he said. “As soon as you start making plans and telling drivers what to do, I learned a long time ago it doesn’t work. Just leave it in their hands. They’re professionals, they know what they are doing.
“I think there’s going to be a lot more pressure Saturday night. Who knows, she might even improve on what she did Saturday. I don’t put her on the clock over the week, she just gets ticked over and look after. My job is to manage her and keep her fit, whether she can improve even further so be it.”
HRV – Michael Howard