Dual acceptor Havana will take his place in the Listed $100,000 Channel Seven Mick Dittman Plate (1110m) at Doomben on Saturday after being scratched from the Rosehill race meeting.
Havana will find the Mick Dittman Plate easier than running 6th to Sidestep, above, in the Royal Sovereign Stakes. Photo by Steve Hart.
Trainer Paul Messara was waiting to see what the weather was going to do but after Havana drew the outside barrier of the twelve horse field in the $85,000 Benchmark 80 Handicap (1200m) at Rosehill, decided to stay in Brisbane.
“He’s up there, he’s drawn well and the track is ideal,” Messara told AAP.
“The conditions in terms of the strength of both races is similar but he has drawn a bad barrier in Sydney.
“There would have to be a downpour overnight for him to head there at this stage.”
Havana only won his maiden two starts back with a four lengths victory over 1100m at Canterbury on March 12 and is facing a considerable drop in class after running sixth to Sidestep in the Group 2 $500,000 Arrowfield Royal Sovereign Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on April 19.
The Starcraft three year old has drawn gate two in the fifteen horse Mick Ditman Plate with Kerrin McEvoy to take over from Craig Williams.
Messara expects a bold showing from Havana and bookmakers have agreed with Ladbrokes.com.au installing him the $2.70 favourite.
“He is a very talented horse and I expect him to run really well on Saturday,” Messara said.
“He actually got chopped out of the start, it wasn’t our intention to go back and we wanted to actually drive him forward and have him on the pace.
“He won very well the start before at Canterbury and he went forward and dominated the race and we had intentions of doing that again at his last start.
“Hopefully on Saturday now with a good gate we can stay one off the fence and come into clear running room in the straight.”
The Kelly Schweida trained Agitate is next in the betting at $5 following a second over 1000m against the three year olds at Eagle Farm on April 19 while Le Val, Mishani Gladiator and Rough Copy share the next line of betting at $10.
