Group 1 winner Begood Toya Mother will be facing a weight for age test when he takes on a quality field in the Group 1 $500,000 Neds C.F. Orr Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
Begood Toya Mother, above, will take on a quality weight for age field in the 2020 C.F. Orr Stakes at Caulfield. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
Begood Toya Mother has had two outings at weight for age for a sixth in the Group 1 $1m New Zealand Bloodstock Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield during the 2019 Melbourne Spring Carnival and a first up seventh in the Group 2 $200,000 Mortimer Petroleum Australia Stakes (1200m) at The Valley on January 24 and finished behind Scales Of Justice on both occasions.
Trainer Daniel Bowman said that Begood Toya Mother was underdone going into the Memsie Stakes but was able to bounce back at his next start and win the Group 1 $500,000 Ladbrokes Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield under handicap conditions.
“If he can’t be highly competitive on Saturday at weight-for-age then he’s just not a weight-for-age horse,” Bowman told AAP.
“We’ve got him as good as we can. He’s ticked every box. He’s drawn a great gate, he’s second-up.
“It’s Caulfield over 1400 metres and his only defeat at Caulfield was in the Memsie when he probably wasn’t fit enough and did a few things wrong but was only beaten 2-1/2-lengths.
“If he can bring his A-game then he should be highly competitive.”
Bowman will give Begood Toya Mother a pass mark if he can run in the top three and if he succeeds will continue onto the Group 1 $500,000 Futurity Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on February 22.
“We always had this as a target and we just thought if he runs top three we’ll still go to the Futurity but the Futurity is going to be a lot stronger with horses like Kolding and Melody Belle heading that way,” Bowman said.
“We thought our best chance if we were going to win one would be this one. He meets a few of the other horses with a run under his belt and they are first-up, and probably the others out of the Australia Stakes in Scales Of Justice and Hey Doc are the two to beat.”
Begood Toya Mother will jump from gate six in the twelve horse C.F Orr Stakes field with Declan Bates back in the saddle and the five year old is marked at $9 at Ladbrokes.com.au.
Memsie Stakes and Australia Stakes winner Scales Of Justice sits at the top of the market order at $2.90 ahead of Hey Doc at $5.50, and the three year old Alabama Express at $8.50.
