‘Writing on the wall’: Trainer Annabel Neasham’s Fawkner Park confidence ahead of Q22 at Eagle Farm

The Albury and Wagga Cups are rarely used as lead ups to major spring features, but Annabel Neasham reckons her latest European import can make his presence felt in the $1.2m Q22 on Saturday.

Fawkner Park has moved on from country cup to the Q22 on Saturday. Picture: Grant Guy.

Fawkner Park is the country cups champ who could be destined for spring riches, but first he needs to stamp his ticket by fulfilling his potential in Saturday’s Group 2 Q22 at Eagle Farm.

Annabel Neasham admits she has been taken aback by the European import, who has quietly gone through his grades in Australia, but has emerged as a genuine Group 1 contender after putting in a flashing light run in the Doomben Cup last month.

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Albury and Wagga Cups are rarely used as lead ups to Victorian spring features, but Neasham wants to use the Q22 on Saturday as a guide as to what Fawkner Park’s future holds.

“Is he a Melbourne Cup horse? I don’t know, but of the big three races, I think the Caulfield Cup is probably the one we would have circled because we know he gets 2400m,” she said.

Fawkner Park (far right) was a huge run in defeat in the Doomben Cup. Picture: Grant Peters — Trackside Photography

“We have seen how well this carnival can set horses up for those big spring races.”

As a $4.50 favourite for the rich Q22 on Saturday, Neasham says her import is in the right space to prove his Doomben Cup run was no fluke.

“It was an unknown going into the Doomben Cup with him because he was coming out of country cups,” she said.

BOIS D’ARGENT WINS THE GROUP 1 XXXX DOOMBEN CUP 🏆 @blake_shinn@ANeashamRacing#QLDisRacing🏇 pic.twitter.com/RgRYr7l221

— RaceQ (@RaceQLD) May 25, 2024

“The way he won those against the bias was pretty impressive, but he really put the writing on the wall in the Doomben Cup.

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“I’m not saying he should have won, but he got held up for a couple of strides and he is a momentum horse, he wasn’t beaten far.

“It wasn’t the deepest of Group 1s, so he will have to go to another level if he’s going to measure up in the spring.

“He is so lightly raced and it was soft in the Doomben Cup, so I think you will see a better horse on a dry track at Eagle Farm.”

Originally published as ‘Writing on the wall’: Trainer Annabel Neasham’s Fawkner Park confidence ahead of Q22 at Eagle Farm