Mystic to set off on another Group 1 Journey
Trinder confident star mare can put up a bold showing in Lawrence defence, but believes there is still plenty of improvement to come
It will be a strange and stressful day for Tasmanian trainer Adam Trinder tomorrow, as his star mare Mystic Journey (Needs Further) heads to Caulfield for her first-up assignment in the P.B. Lawrence Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) without him.
However, he is confident she is in safe hands with senior staff member Steph, who completed two weeks of quarantine in Melbourne before the five-year-old Group 1 winner arrived yesterday.
“I’ll probably spend a fair bit of time wandering around the farm on Saturday, I’d suggest,” Trinder said on RSN 927’s Racing Pulse yesterday. “It’ll be different but everything’s been put in place and her handler’s there with her so she’ll do us justice. I have no doubt about that.
“It’s something where you can’t change anything once you let them go out of the mounting yard on race day, whether you’re there or not, but when you’re there and seeing them with your own eyes, it’s probably a little bit easier to deal with.”
Mystic Journey, or Betty as she is commonly known, arrived at Peter Moody’s Pakenham stables yesterday morning and Trinder said she travelled in tip top shape.
“We’ve just sent her down to Pakenham,” the trainer said. “The ground is all very new down there and it’s a nice quiet environment without an abundance of horses in training so we’ve decided to send her down there.
“She arrived three-quarters of an hour ago and is nice and settled. She’s just tacking up now to go out for a light trot just so she can have a look around and stretch her legs and then come back in and get her head down for the day.
“She travelled over really well. In the videos and photos that Steph’s sent through so far she looks lovely and bright.
“She got her head straight down into her water bucket and hydrated and got a bit of hay into her so she looks good to me.
“She loaded up really well last night. The trip was probably an hour shorter than what I envisaged, she left at 6:30 last night and she was at Pakenham by 6:45 this morning, so I thought that was pretty good.
“I’m becoming very tech savvy. We’re fortunate to live in an era where we can link up with video calls and Zoom and the like. I’ll see everything that Steph’s seen so I hope that I can do Betty justice.”
Mystic Journey will be looking to make it back-to-back wins in the P.B. Lawrence after taking out the race to kick off her spring campaign last year.
However, after she was sidelined for much of this year’s autumn, Trinder said that while he thinks she is as ready to fire first-up as she was last year, his only concern is that she is lacking a bit of match practice.
“I feel she is (just as wound up as she was this time last year),” the trainer continued. “She obviously had a really light autumn so she hasn’t had the game practice or as much game practice in the last six months, so that’s probably the only doubt in my mind.
“Race day pressure on that ground, she may be a little bit vulnerable in the last 100 metres but she’s very good in her action, good in her demeanour and had a lovely course proper gallop at Launceston on Tuesday morning before she travelled. She’s wound up to run a race, bounce out of the event and take improvement for the Memsie.
“I thought it was a really strong event last year. Obviously I’ve spoken at length in the past of the admiration I had for Hartnell so I thought it was a really competitive race last year. It’s come up a really competitive race again this year, it’s Group 2 company and there’s nowhere to hide.
“The pattern of the day will be interesting. I would like to see the rain stay away and the track at least stay at a (soft) six and hopefully improving.
“By race eight of the day we’ll have a good understanding as to whether they’re getting away from the rail and Billy (Egan, jockey) will be able to do his homework and work out as to what sort of course we’re plotting.”
“I feel they will go a genuine tempo once again. Streets Of Avalon bowls away out to seven furlongs with a low draw, James Cummings’ horse has got speed from a low draw as well.
“I feel we’ll probably just roll out in the first 100 metres and just allow Billy to assess it from there. She sat fourth in last year’s version of the Lawrence from an inside draw.
“I’d suggest from an outside draw (9), she’d probably be a pair further back, so she’ll probably have half a dozen in front of her and three or four behind her.”
Not only will Mystic Journey be without her trainer at Caulfield tomorrow, she will also have a new jockey on her back with in-form Victorian hoop Billy Egan being booked for her first two starts this prep.
Tasmanian-based Anthony Darmanin has partnered the mare in all bar one of her starts, including when she won the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and All Star Mile (1600m), but with racing in the state put on hold for an extended period of time this year, Trinder said he felt they needed a jockey who had done more riding.
“It was always tough with the loyalty aspect, but we felt we needed to do the right thing at the right time,” Trinder said. “I spoke with Anthony at length about it and with the current situation, unfortunately we didn’t feel that he was riding enough.
“Billy’s been engaged for the first two events and then we’ll assess after that. Billy’s got a good understanding of her. When she first went to Melbourne he rode her work for the week so he’s spent a little bit of time with her and he was quite successful for us over the summer carnival.
“He did the job on a couple of fillies in stakes races for us so he’s a lovely rider with good, kind hands and is in red–hot form.”
An $11,000 Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale purchase who has amassed $3,743,600 in career prize-money, Mystic Journey will be out to significantly add to that purse over the course of the spring carnival.
After tomorrow, she will be set for the Memsie Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) over the same course and distance in two weeks’ time. Trinder is confident that whatever she does in the P.B. Lawrence, she will only take improvement for her second-up run.
“Top three,” Trinder said of his expectations for Mystic Journey tomorrow. “That’s good enough for me as long as she hits the line with good enthusiasm.
“As I said, I think she’ll probably be in the second half of the field from that draw so if she can hit the line and run top three, I think that bodes really well moving forward to a Memsie in two weeks’ time because she will bounce out of the run and just with her lacking a little bit of match practice, she’ll take good improvement.”