By Ray Hickson
There’s been a few bumps along the road to getting Kranich to the $150,000 Evergreen Turf WRA Country Championships but trainer Michael Mulholland says he’s confident he can be in the finish at Dubbo today.
The five-year-old has raced three times this preparation and Mulholland said each run has been better than the previous as he strives to have his first runner in the $1 million final.
Racing returns to Dubbo on Sunday.Credit: Jenny Evans
Mulholland won the Central Districts Championships in 2021 with Old Harbour, when he was based at Wellington, but injury prevented that horse from contesting the final.
“He’s had a nice build-up, he’s had niggling issues and you try to plan to go through and get everything perfect but nothing’s perfect,” he said.
“He hasn’t run poorly, he’s been in 82 Benchmark races, he ran a nice fourth first-up then a nice third and a nice second so he’s built up to win.
“He’ll run the 1400m out strongly, he’ll sit back and hit the line strongly; that’s his best asset. A lot of the horses are only 1200m horses and not a lot of them have been really tested over 1400m.”
Dubbo had a late call-up to host the race when track issues forced the move from Coonamble which has hosted the Championships for the region since 2020.
Mulholland, who trains at Dubbo, said it’s naturally going to be a plus and it probably gives Kranich a better chance to offset his barrier.
“It won’t be as hard, Coonamble would have been like concrete and he doesn’t like hard ground,″ he said.
“It’s not a big turning track at Dubbo and most times horses down the centre of the track hit the line strongly. Half of his wins he’s come out of wide gates anyway.
“He’ll need to relax and hopefully he can get in about seventh and eighth and get a seat somewhere, and just be patient.”
While Kranich was safely held by Crusader Kings in the 1200m Preview just over a week ago, the trainer says that trip is a bit of a “voodoo distance” for him and he’ll be much better off at 1400m.
Jasper’s Way represents a second stringer for Mulholland in the Championships race, but he’s happy to have a throw at the stumps with the lightly raced four-year-old.
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