Two-time winner Front Page snapped up for third crack at The Kosciuszko

The Matt Dale-trained galloper has won the past two editions of The Kosciuszko and will get his chance at Royal Randwick on Saturday.

Front Page will chase his third consecutive victory in The Kosciuszko. Picture: Jeremy Ng/Getty Images

Trainer Matt Dale is trusting a proven formula to deliver two-time winner Front Page another The Kosciuszko after his gun sprinter was one of the first horses picked for next month’s main event.

Fourteen ticket holders were revealed on Wednesday morning and given the chance to snap up country contenders for the $2m feature at Royal Randwick on October 19.

Several of the top five in the Kosciuszko betting were unsurprisingly some of the first horses off the board with Far Too Easy ($6), Boom Torque ($11) and At Witz End ($11) also secured.

Front Page was snapped up by Bulahdelah ticket holder Allan Robards and friends as he attempts to complete a remarkable Kosciuszko hat-trick.

Dale will have at least two runners in the race with Cavalier Charles ($15) also getting a third crack at the race.

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FRONT PAGE GOES BACK-TO-BACK IN THE KOSCIUSZKO! 📰@G1TySchilpic.twitter.com/fGGKUyJPiq

— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) October 14, 2023

Front Page has continued to firm in favouritism for The Kosciuszko, into $2.80 since it was revealed that leading contenders Clear Thinking and Opal Ridge both would not line up in the race.

“He is the sort of horse, in that style of race, is always going to be very hard to beat,” Dale said.

“We’ve noted that a few of the chances in the market have dropped away in the past couple of weeks but ultimately, we just worry about having him as good as we can and go from there.

“He is the headline act but we were keen to get a couple of the others in the race as well.”

Matt Dale recently locked in star jockey James McDonald for The Kosciuszko ride with regular rider Tyler Schiller set to be in Melbourne for the Caulfield Cup.

Front Page will ramp up his preparation for The Kosciuszko next week with an unofficial jumpout over 800m before he has an official trial at Goulburn on October 8.

“It’s exactly what he did last year,” Dale said.

“He will have that jump out and then the trial on the Tuesday prior to the race before going into it first up.”

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Trainer Matthew Dale (right) with former trainer Geoff Duryea. Picture: Jeremy Ng-etty Images

Cavalier Charles has finished fourth in the past two The Kosciuszko’s and Dale felt he deserved another crack.

“He was run next Saturday, a month out from the Kozzie in a Benchmark 88 over 1200m and then go into it from there,” Dale said.

Far Too Easy, trained by David McColm, has finished second and third behind Front Page the past two years and runs for the Tattersalls Hotel Inverell syndicate.

A syndication set up by Matt Dunn’s stable saw them purchase 5822 tickets at a cost of just over $29,000 however they failed to snare a slot.

But Dunn was quick to get a horse in the field anyway with Boom Torque locked in by Coonabarabran’s Brett Bowman.

Trainer Dan Bowen will have his two-time stakes winner At Witz End in the race while the Mack Griffith-trained Compelling Truth is also understood to be have been selected.

Originally published as Two-time winner Front Page snapped up for third crack at The Kosciuszko