Multiple Group 1 winning Kiwi galloper Turn Me Loose will be chasing back to back wins in the Group 1 $500,000 Futurity Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on February 25.
Turn Me Loose, above, will be chasing back to back wins in the Futurity Stakes during the Melbourne Autumn Carnival. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
Cambridge trainer Murray Baker doesn’t expect Turn Me Loose to trouble the better performed sprinters when he resumes in the Group 2 $200,000 Jeep Australia Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on January 27 but is expecting him to be more competitive later in the Autumn Carnival over more suitable distances.
“He is going well and won a trial, he beat Xtravagant. He has taken a lot of improvement out of that,” Murray told RSN’s Racing Ahead.
“He is running at Moonee Valley a week on Friday, 1200m weight for age. It is probably too short for him but he have to run him.”
Turn Me Loose will then step out in the Group 1 $500,000 C.F. Orr Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on February 11, a race he ran fourth in last year, before trying to make it successive wins in the Futurity Stakes after claiming the weight for age feature last year.
“We are pretty happy with him. Because he is a Melbourne owned horse and they would like him to run there,” Murray said.
“He hasn’t had a lot of racing, probably sixteen or seventeen starts, hopefully he still has a bit left in the tank.”
Turn Me Loose claimed the Group 1 $1m Emirates Stakes (1600m) at Flemington during the 2015 Melbourne Spring Carnival but was well beaten in two runs during the 2016 Spring Carnival with an eighth to Star Turn in the Group 2 $400,000 Mitsubishi Electric Schillaci Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield on October 8 followed by an eighth to Malaguerra in the Group 1 $1m Darley Classic (1200m) at Flemington.
“He had a couple of runs in Sydney (In the Autumn) then had a knee chip taken out,” Murray said.
“It took us a while to get going, always on the back foot. We took him to Melbourne for the Spring. He was going good enough but there just weren’t the races for him so he ran in a couple of the short course races, but he just got out sprinted a bit.”
Melbourne Cup winning jockey Kerrin McEvoy was aboard Turn Me Loose when he won the 2015 Emirates Stakes and he will be re-united with the five year old in the Australia Stakes.
