Love Days has recorded two impressive wins from as many starts during her racing career to date and trainer Clinton McDonald is confident she can maintain her unbeaten record in the 2015 Beachside Handicap at Flemington on Saturday.
Mark Zahra has been booked to ride Love Days in the Beachside Handicap at Flemington tomorrow. Photo by: Adrienne Bicknell
Love Days made her racing debut with a dominant seven lengths victory in the Westcoast Wilcleen Services Maiden (1100m) at Warrnambool on November 23 and she proved that was no fluke when she led from start to finish to take out the Hossack Smash Repairs Handicap (1200m) at Moonee Valley on December 4.
McDonald told Racing Ahead that Love Days had continued to train on strongly ahead of the Beachside Handicap and he said that he could not be happier with the physical condition of the Bel Esprit filly.
“She is a lovely filly and she is coming along nicely,” McDonald said.
“She was very impressive the other day.
“She has come through it really well.
“We sent her down to Rosemont pre-training for a week and she had week down there on a water walker for a mental freshen-up.
“I’ve had her at the beach all week, she did a little bit of work on Tuesday and she is really happy.
“She looks great, she was nice and bright down there this morning and I am very happy with her.”
Love Days has shown plenty of early speed during her racing career to date, but McDonald revealed that the three-year-old is actually fairly tractable and could be ridden to take a sit in the early stages of the Beachside Handicap.
However, McDonald said that he would not go into the Beachside Handicap with any set plan and he confirmed that he is happy to leave the tactics up to in-form hoop Mark Zahra.
“She is very exciting and the reason being is just the mannerism,” McDonald said.
“She is not one of those speedy fillies that just wants to overdo it.
“Normally when you find horses that have gears like that they are above average.
“We have the nice barrier and we can just see what is going on around us.
“We have one of the chances on the inside and one on the outside and they are probably the two live hopes, so we are on the middle of them.
“I will just leave it to Mark – I don’t have to be telling him how to ride him.”
Love Days is currently available at 2015 Beachside Handicap odds of $1.80 with Ladbrokes and she is a dominant favourite from Lady Esprit ($4.80), Magna Rosa ($6), Validate ($15) and Central Park Belle ($15).
