All going to plan for another Pony Soprano hit at Port Macquarie
By Ray Hickson
Everything trainer Robert Agnew can control about Pony Soprano’s build-up to today’s $150,000 Evergreen Turf Mid North Coast Country Championships (1200m) at Port Macquarie has gone exactly to plan.
What he can’t control is the barrier draw and that’s what concerns him about what is the three-year-old’s biggest test.
Racing heads to Port Macquarie on Sunday.Credit: Getty
Agnew is confident Pony Soprano has the talent to go close but he’ll be relying on a perfect steer from jockey Ash Morgan and a healthy dose of luck.
“The draw’s not great, I’m either going to get an absolute grouse run or I’m going to be three deep,” Agnew said.
“I feel like he can cross most of them inside me, I think Ben [Looker on Bodhi Boy] holds the key to where he ends up.
“The way the track can play it wouldn’t be a bad thing if I could be in the one-one off a hot speed.”
Pony Soprano has won two of his four starts and Agnew deliberately had him underdone going into his narrow first-up win, over the Championships course at Port Macquarie last month, where he sat outside the lead under 58.5kg and got the job done.
Agnew has already experimented with riding the gelding quietly and he wasn’t as effective, and while the general consensus is Sunday’s race will be strongly run he says he has to have the horse ridden to his strengths.
“He pulled up a bit big over the back and that told me there was improvement in him,” he said.
“He had the softest option into his first-up win and everything I’ve planned has come forward.
“We just needed the barrier but who knows, come Sunday it might not be the end of the horse. Preparation-wise he’s perfect, we’ve done everything we can.
“His gallop was good on Tuesday. I’m bullish he can run a cheeky race, he’s just going to need a lot of luck.
“He’s got to handle the pressure too, it’s going to be a pressure cooker, there’s going to be a lot of speed and he’s a young horse.”
First and second from the Port Macquarie feature will progress to the $1 million Evergreen Turf Country Championships Final (1400m) at Randwick on April 5.
Supplied by Racing NSW
Full form and race replays available at racingnsw.com.au