Albury preview: Shout to the top for Stubbs’ galloper

The Ron Stubbs-trained Cooee, a hulking son of Holler, aims to stretch his unbeaten sequence to three when he fronts up for a third time at his home track at Albury on Monday.

Cooee’s trainer Ron Stubbs

GIANT-sized gelding Cooee can bag himself a home-town hat-trick on Monday before an intermission in his so far brief but increasingly spectacular career.

The Ron Stubbs trained galloper successfully made the transition from maiden to Class 1 in the space of 18-days, winning back to back races over 1175m and 1400m respectively.

Both times he’s been ridden by Mathew Cahill who will be on board again Monday when the son of former sprint champion Holler aims to stretch himself out to 1500m in the North Albury Tyrepower Benchmark 58 Handicap.

“When Matt Cahill got off him last start, he said he thinks he would run a mile and a quarter (2000m),’’ Stubbs said.

“He is not a brilliant horse but gee he is just big and strong and that’s how he races. He keeps grinding away.’’

Stubbs is adamant that Monday will be the last time we see Cooee in the 2023/24 racing season, win, lose or draw.

The trainer isn’t taking anything for granted as far as Monday’s assignment is concerned but a third win in as many starts might call for ‘thinking big’ next preparation and beyond.

“He’s a strange horse, we just don’t know where his ceiling is obviously but all he can do is win and that’s all he does,’’ Stubbs said.

“I haven’t measured him but he’d be over 17 hands.

“He didn’t have his first start until he was five and even though it was a long wait and tested everybody’s patience, I think it is an advantage now.

“He is fully mature and that has to help him.’’

And so does his enormous length of stride.

“They’ve got one and a half strides to his one, so mathematically, it has to help,’’ Stubbs says.

Cooee is scheduled to contest the first leg of the TAB Daily Double at Albury while stablemate He’s My Warrior will fly the flag in the second leg.

It’s then that the former David Payne trained son of Hallowed Crown will step back from 1400m to 1175m after two seconds at the longer trip, one to Cooee, the other behind King De Lune.

The impressive Cooee gets the chocolates in the Albury opener! @RonStubbs4pic.twitter.com/Q78pmVki6S

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) May 20, 2024

“Last start, Jason (Lyon) got off and said he just wasn’t sure if he was running a strong 1400m,’’ Stubbs explained.

“He said he just seemed to taper at the end, although he was beaten by a very smart horse and then he beat the rest of the field quite easily.

“But we thought we would just take the opportunity and try that and probably ride him a little bit more quieter.

“If you watched his first win, it was brilliant, he got back to near last and then just stormed home.

“I don’t think he will reproduce that to that degree but if he could replicate it to some point, he’d be very hard to beat.”

Stubbs’ first order of business at Albury on Monday is centered around stable recruit Rising Water which has found what can only be described as the perfect race in the Habitat Planning Class 1 & Maiden Plate over 1600m.

“Last start, he had a couple of pig-roots when he jumped so he had to have a trial and the trial just worked in perfectly now with the program,’’ Stubbs said.

“For a Class 1 horse, I thought he trialled very nicely.

“We’re just going to go out there with no set tactics. We’ll just ride him as he jumps.

“If he jumps and wants to be up there, we will just let him slide.

“He was a bit tardy away last start so if that is the case, we will just ride him patiently.”

Originally published as Albury preview: Shout to the top for Stubbs’ galloper