Coffs Harbour preview: Trainer Noel Mayfield-Smith is looking forward to unleashing Monte Out’N’About

Trainer Noel Mayfield-Smith will use his hometown meeting to take the wrapping off exciting debutant More Out’N’About.

Trainer Noel Mayfield-Smith has found a nice race for Monte Out’N’About to make her anticipated race debut. Picture: Bradley Photos

Noel Mayfield-Smith’s ‘fortieth something’ Monte monikered galloper, Monte Out’N’About, is ready and able to make a winning debut when she steps out in the Elmac Electrical Country Boosted Maiden Handicap (1005m) at Coffs Harbour.

The Queensland born and bred Monte Out’N’About is one of the seemingly endless string of ‘Monte’ horses raced by Vic and Yvonne Bates.

“Vic and Yvonne love their horses,” Mayfield-Smith said.

“Vic had a trainer’s license for a long while and he was very successful.”

Mayfield-Smith reckoned on some where close to forty ‘Monte’ horses passing through his stable door over the years, whether that be presently at Coffs Harbour or at Hawkesbury before that.

Monte Out'N'About as a yearling. Picture: Inglis

The best of them, by sheer number of wins, was Monte Fino who won seven races from 28 starts.

As for Monte Out’N’About, she was raised at Highgrove Stud on the Darling Downs and a much admired Lot at Riverside when put up for sale in 2021.

“She cost a fortune,” Mayfield-Smith said. “It was a $475,000 Easter Yearling.”

Monte Out’N’About is by I Am Invincible out of a stakes-winning Choisir mare; the same cross that delivered Sheikh Mohammed his Newmarket Handicap and Coolmore Stud Stakes winner, In Secret.

Mayfield-Smith’s mare was tuned up for her debut with an eye-catching third in what has proved to be a deep heat at Grafton on April 30.

“Glenn (Cahill) rode her and she went very solid early, more than what we wanted, so he didn’t knock her around late,” he said.

“I have put a couple of gear changes on her; so she will run in ear muffs and a Hanoverian noseband which just steadies them a bit, keeps their mouth closed and just gives you that bit more control.”

While the presence of Mill Reef in Monte Out’N’About’s family tree adds some stamina to another predominantly speed pedigree, Mayfield-Smith’s focus is on ‘five furlongs’ and Friday only.

Allberin gives Anthony Allen a double at Grafton! pic.twitter.com/x5CPBWOIqJ

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) May 16, 2024

“She has got a fair bit of toe,” he said.

“I looked at this race to start off with and I have given her the work I think she needed to be competitive in that race and I haven’t gone any further than that.”

Five-time Group 1 winning trainer Mayfield-Smith has found what shapes as the ideal race for another of the stable’s blue bloods, namely Regina’s Girl who will have her share of supporters in the A J Civil Projects Class 1 & Maiden Plate (1605m).

Mayfield-Smith has the daughter of Cox Plate winner Adelaide in pristine working order despite a rain-interrupted campaign this autumn.

“The back end of it has been terrible, it is stop-start, you don’t know where you are going,” he said.

“I think her form goes, one start, four weeks, one start, five weeks and when you are getting them up over a bit of ground, it makes it even harder to get consistency which you need.

“I thought her run the other day was quite good. She just ran out of steam over the last bit.

“She was very unlucky in a 1630m race at Grafton, she just couldn’t get a run. Raymond Spokes rode her and he said she should have won.”

Regina’s Girl has a pedigree to delight the breeding buffs; her fifth dam is Toyland whose 1971 mating to Showdown resulted in the champion filly, Toy Show.

CARROLL REUNITES WITH TOP APPRENTICE AS HE CHASES STAYING SUCCESS

Wayne Carroll can help raise Molly Bourke’s tally of Wagga winners to 21 while boosting his own to 142 if the barnstorming mare Mayfair Hotel checks-in first in the Heat of the Wagga Staying Series (2000m).

This will be the first time Bourke has piloted Mayfair Hotel since horse and rider finished fourth in a 1600m Class 1 in the nation’s capital on April 7 in 2023.

Carroll is looking forward to reuniting with the now well-established Randwick-based apprentice.

“Molly is a real worker and a really lovely person,” Carroll said.

“She has always been a worker and if you’ve got that instilled in you, which Molly has, it will take you a long way. There is no question about that.”

Dusty's Reward takes it out! @AlburyRacingpic.twitter.com/XTX1IkJ0aX

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) April 15, 2024

Bourke will have to pull out one of her best rides to see Mayfair Hotel home in the capacity field given a wide draw on a track that is guaranteed to be subject to rainfall throughout the day.

“It is a bit of a tricky gate from where are going to start from and she doesn’t have a lot of gate speed,” Carroll explained.

“We’ll try and ride her midfield or thereabouts and use her finish. She has got a pretty good tank on her and she can run some really good sectionals.”

Her racing pattern of slow early, fast late, is something Mayfair Hotel shares with her older-sister Sumdeel with whom Carroll won an 1800m TAB Highway on the 2022 Missile Stakes undercard.

Carroll’s other runner at his hometown meeting to end the week is Katie Express who aims to snap a sequence of a fifth and two ninth placings this campaign.

Notably, the filly’s last win was on the Riverside track on a Soft 5 which has Carroll hopeful that the Bureau of Meteorology has it right with the forecast rain.

“That’s what I am banking on because I have been really disappointed with her runs this time in and for no reason other than maybe the tracks have been a bit firm for her,” said Carroll.

“I was about to put her back in the paddock but the rain is coming so I thought I would give her one more throw at the stumps and see if that can make a difference.”

Originally published as Coffs Harbour preview: Trainer Noel Mayfield-Smith is looking forward to unleashing Monte Out’N’About