Beaumont, Bathurst previews: Monday winners for small stables

Trainer Scott Singleton is counting down to his local Country Championships Heat with stable gun Sir Remlap but has first he business to attend to at Beaumont on Monday.

Kimberley Moon is chasing back-to-back wins at Beaumont on Monday. Photo: Bradley Photos.

TRAINER Scott Singleton is one month, less one day, away from stable gun Sir Remlap’s visit to Tamworth for the 2025 Hunter & North West Country Championship Heat and it can’t come soon enough.

Singleton, who won a 2017 Provincial Championships Qualifier with Shazee Lee when based at Hawkesbury, has his 2025 Country Championships contender in fighting shape for his imminent career defining moment.

“I think he’s pretty smart,’’ Singleton said from Inglis’s Riverside sales complex on Sunday.

“He is developing into one of the better horses I’ve had I think.

“He had a gallop between races at Scone on Thursday and it is probably the best I have seen him work.

“And he just looked like a good horse.

“Because he had to have the 12 months off and he’s only had five starts, he is still quite green and he’s just sort of starting to put it together.

“I’ve just got a hunch that he is going to measure right up in that Heat and then hopefully we can get him a bit further than that to the Final all going well.’’

Before all that, Singleton saddles-up two of Sir Remlap’s stablemates at Beaumont namely Another Peach and the last start winner, Kimberley Moon.

Victorian-bred filly Another Peach steps out for just the second time in Monday’s Horsepower Feeds & Supplements Maiden Plate (1150m) in a small but select field.

Another Peach opened her career with a creditable fourth at Muswellbrook on debut with Shazee Lee’s Provincial Qualifier partner Christian Reith in the saddle.

“It was a pass-mark,’’ Singleton said.

“She just wanted a little bit further and missed a kick a little bit, being her first time at the races, and had to be sort of rushed up.

“She stuck to her task okay late I thought.

“She has come on a lot since. She is really starting to gallop at home now so I think she will run better on Monday but admittedly, it is probably a little bit stronger race again but she will be very competitive.’’

Another Peach was one of 55 foals from the first crop of Kingstar Farm resident sire, Unite And Conquer who won the Maribyrnong Trial and Wyong 2YO Magic Millions at the first two of his only three racetrack appearances.

Another Peach’s’ dam, Peach Tree was an uncommonly versatile mare who won from 1000m to the 2200m of the Listed WATC Belmont Classic.

Singleton’s filly has a more tangible advantage than her family ties today having been gifted barrier one.

“I like a good draw from that start around the Beaumont,’’ Singleton says. “I’m pretty happy about that.’’

Stablemate Kimberley Moon on the other hand will have to overcome the outside draw in the Dailey Family Funerals Handicap (1150m) if she wants to bury her rivals on Monday.

The daughter of Stratum Star burst back into the winner’s stall at Gunnedah on January 30, four weeks after her worst career performance at Muswellbrook.

“I think first-up was a bit of trainer error, ‘’ Singleton said.

“She just had a little bit of a puff, we thought she was right to go but we should have trialled her before going to the races, in hindsight.

“Second-up she was good.

“She has drawn a bit tricky but I didn’t think it came up too strong.

“It is a winnable race for her if she gets a little bit of the draw.”

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CLAIRE Lever makes the familiar trip to Bathurst on Monday on a quest for her 30th winner at the venue.

Eight of those are as a trainer, 20 when riding under her maiden name of Nutman.

“I love Bathurst,’’ Lever said. “I have had so much luck there.

“I reckon when I was riding, I would nearly came home with a winner every meeting.”

Despite her sizeable number of Bathurst winners as a jockey, facts and figures show that she is twice as good there as a trainer.

That is to say, her winning strike-rate as a jockey at the Central West venue was 16.5 per cent win and 40.5 per cent when placings are added.

Her current winning strike-rate at Bathurst as a trainer is 32 per cent which skyrockets to 64 per cent taking placings on board.

Lever’s two Bathurst-bound runners Casanova and Lucky Star both wear the same, ubiquitous red and white dot silks of prominent industry figure, Kim Harding.

Casanova was strategically scratched from a scheduled engagement at Nowra on Sunday to contest Sunday’s Heat of The Rising Star (1400m).

“There a few horses that have come out and there’s one more that is racing (on Sunday) so the field will fall away a bit,’’ Lever said.

“I think Casanova can go pretty close.

“He has come on since his last run and he won second-up last time out over the 1400m at Gundagai.

“He has got a nice pull in the weights. He’ll roll to the front and makes his own luck and he has won a heavy track at Gundagai and it kind of mapping the same, weatherwise, for Monday.’’

Casanova, who was bred by Harding, has a lot to live up to, pedigree-wise.

The gelding’s seventh dam is Entreaty, the mother of the immortal Phar Lap.

Stablemate Lucky Star meanwhile will be ridden for the second consecutive time on Monday by Lever’s husband, Chad, himself a former two-time champion Adelaide jockey.

Lucky Star is unplaced in his five starts but all have been on the provincial circuit including his meritorious first-up seventh of 14 in a Newcastle Maiden behind (runner-up) Sunset Park who won easily at Kembla on the weekend.

“He has come on as well since that run at Newcastle,’’ Lever said.

“The run itself was good, that was 1300m, and he is bred to get over a bit of a trip.

“Chad will push forward I would day and make his own luck.’’

Originally published as Beaumont, Bathurst previews: Monday winners for small stables