Atomic Force

He was one of the stars of the 2011 Sydney autumn carnival and he’s set for big things as he embarks on a spring campaign.

Atomic Force quickly became a crowd favourite in Sydney as the relatively cheap Dynamic Syndications owned horse rose through the grades to battle with his more fancied rivals.

After racing first up in a Rosehill Handicap he was beaten easily and looked a long way off a top liner.

He managed to bounce back next start though and his Warwick Farm victory set up the race sot come.

He won the McCarten Stakes easily on a heavy track before finishing fourth in the St Kingdom Stakes next up.

After that it was the Group 1 Galaxy, in atrocious conditions at Royal Randwick.

The outsider of the field, Atomic Force broke clear at the top of the straight and never looked in danger as won by nearly three lengths.

He finished his campaign with a second in the Victory Stakes at the Gold Coast and another second during the Scone standalone carnival.

Tomorrow he’s back at Rosehill where he’ll run first up in the Starlight Stakes over 1100m.

He’s the top weight with 60.5kg and he has an awkward draw in barrier 10.

Still though, trainer Darren Smith is confident he’s in good shape to earn himself a win.

“He was very very well at track work this morning, all is well,” Smith said.

“He had a very good gallop on Tuesday morning, after that we’ve been just ticking him over nice and steady…he’s always relaxed”

Tim Clark has been the regular rider for Atomic Force in the past and his positioning of the horse went a long way to his autumn success.

With Clark heading overseas to Hong Kong for five months though Smith is putting his faith in the experienced hands of Nash Rawiller.

“I’ll leave everything up to Nash, I think there’ll be a few that are too fast for him early to be up on the pace so hopefully he’ll slot in behind them,” he said.

He wasn’t giving too much away in terms of long term plans for the horse simply saying he has a couple of races in mind but he’ll know more by Saturday afternoon.

“We’ve got  a bit of a plan drawn up but we’ll sit down and work it out after tomorrows run,” he said.

There is a field of 11 assembled for tomorrow’s Starlight Stakes with main challenges likely to come from the likes of Soul and Pressday.