Kennewell out to scale spring heights with promising rising three-year-olds
Abseiler and Direct set for important comeback Caulfield jump outs
Melbourne trainer Lloyd Kennewell hopes to be a major player in a host of upcoming stakes races in Victoria and interstate despite the loss of one of his trump cards in promising colt Marine One (Capitalist) to a rival stable.
Today’s Caulfield jump outs on the course proper will be a key pointer to Kennewell’s chances in the coming weeks with rising three-year-olds Abseiler (Extreme Choice) and Direct (Siyouni) stepping up their work for the first time this preparation.
Abseiler, who won his first start at Flemington in January to put him on a Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) path, will line-up in heat seven this morning having not raced since finishing well back in Victoria’s premier juvenile race in February, which was won by Artorius (Flying Artie).
He will make his return with Joe Bowditch in the saddle.
“We’ve just taken him along slowly and he will just have a nice jump out to gain some fitness and just see where he is at in the pecking order, but he seems to have come back and strengthened up a little bit this time in,” Kennewell told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“He’s not the biggest horse, but he’s thickened up nicely and he’s working well, so we are happy with where he is at.”
Abseiler ran fourth in the Blue Diamond Preview (C&G) (Listed, 1000m) but drew the outside gate (14) when it came to his grand final.
“He is a straight-forward horse and he showed that when he won on debut at Flemington and then I thought he ran really well in the Blue Diamond Preview,” he said.
“He had probably just come to the end of it when he got to the Blue Diamond but he’s had a good break and I am happy with where he is at this stage, that’s for sure.”
There are a number of early season three-year-old stakes races in Melbourne and Sydney on the calendar, but Kennewell was reluctant to lock anything in for the gelding.
“There’s ample races but it is just a matter of where you want to place them to try and be competitive or to be winning and getting that winning feeling back and then trying to progress to something a little bit better over the spring,” he said.
“He’s just got to find his mark as to where he is at.”
While cautious about stamping a plan for Abseiler, Kennewell has a more certain preparation in mind for stablemate Direct who will also make his first public appearance of the campaign in heat four.
Kennewell embarked on an ambitious two-start first racing campaign in Sydney with Direct, who set the pace in the Silver Slipper (Gr 2, 1100m) when third to Home Affairs (I Am Invincible). He was subsequently spelled after his unplaced run behind Anamoe (Street Boss) and Profiteer (Capitalist) in the Todman Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) on March 6.
“He’s come back and improved a little bit, matured a little bit. He’s a very good looking horse, a son of Siyouni who has shown us a fair bit in his initial campaign,” the soon-to-be Cranbourne-based trainer said.
“We’ve got a pretty good opinion of the horse, he’s still a colt and a valuable one at that if he can nail a big race. He’s hopefully in for a good spring.”
A $125,000 two-year-old race over 1000 metres on the last day of the racing season at Moonee Valley looms as an immediate target for Direct before the plan is to raise the bar.
“We will get through (this) morning and, all being well, he will kick off on the 31st of July at Moonee Valley in a two-year-old race,” he said.
“He’s a naturally fit horse, he’s come to hand nicely and he will just go around in the morning for fitness. He’s had a good preparation so far and hopefully he can keep on ticking all the boxes from now until his first-up run.”
Bowditch will also partner Direct in his jump out and Kennewell hopes to be able to harness the colt’s obvious early speed.
“He hears the click of the barriers and he jumps a length in front of them. He runs unreal sectionals early because he’s fast and wants to naturally do it,” he said.
“But I would love to be able to ride him a little bit quieter. We’ve worked on that all campaign to try and get him to do that. The next step in doing that is under more race conditions, which is (this) morning, so we will see how we go with that.”
Kennewell’s promising rising four-year-old Esta La Roca (El Roca), who like Abseiler is owned by long-time Western Australian client Santo Guagliardo, will also have a hit-out this morning in preparation for the SAJC Lightning Stakes (Listed, 1050m) at Morphettville on July 31.
She returned as a winner at Sandown early last month and was then runner-up to Malkovich (Choisir) on June 26 at Caulfield, a performance deemed good enough by the trainer to head to Adelaide.
“She’s going well and she is just going around for a maintenance jump out because they are on the course proper and you are better off using that surface to work on and that will keep her ticking over,” he said.
“She won well first-up at Sandown and just got beaten by Malkovich at her next start and he was just beaten in the Monash Stakes the other day.
“(Subsequent Group 1 winner) Viddora has won the Dermody, or the Lightning as I think it is called now, for me before, so I know the right horse for it.
“She looks a nice horse for that sort of race and if she can gain black type, she’s worth a fair bit of money because she’s a good looking filly who has got a good record.”
Meanwhile, Marine One, who was scratched from the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) due to lameness, raced four times for Kennewell as a juvenile but he has recently been transferred to trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace.
Access to a beach training environment, Kennewell revealed, was a reason for the departure from his stable of Marine One, who is raced by a large syndicate which includes Ozzie Kheir, John O’Neill, Brae Sokolski, China Horse Club, Newgate Farm and Merricks Station.
“He’s had a few issues, that horse, and they thought it would be better for him to be trained on the beach. What do they say, swings and roundabouts?” a diplomatic Kennwell said.
“You just have to keep going with it. We have some nice horses here and we are happy with what we’ve got and you deal with what you can control.”