Tuncurry, Dubbo Monday previews: Cassandra Schmidt-trained Gandolfini the new boss at Port Macquarie

Cassandra Schmidt trained gelding Gandolfini has turned into a winning machine of late and arrives at Monday’s Tuncurry meeting searching for a hat-trick

Sisters Cassandra (left) Priscilla (Looker) Schmidt back in their riding days. Photo Frank Redward

It wasn’t long ago Mid North Coast galloper Gandolfini was struggling to match it with his rivals at places like Deepwater and Walcha.

Fast forward to the present and the Cassandra Schmidt-trained bay fronts up at the Kempsey meeting being hosted at Tuncurry today on a hat-trick.

“He’s been the little dark horse of our stable,’’ Schmidt said.

“He’s really improved with racing since we have stepped him to a trip and I am very, very happy to see that the race has gone to 2100m instead of the original 1900m it was at Kempsey.

“That definitely suits him, the further the better for him, and he has won at that track and the distance.

“He is unknown on a Heavy track but I don’t see it being a problem for him.’’

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Gandolfini’s stunning turnaround in form can be partly attributed to ‘travel’, as Schmidt explained.

“I think those big trips away made the horse,’’ she said.

“He is a hell of a lot tougher horse than he used to be and he seems to be thriving with the racing.

“And his two wins this preparation, he’s won them by both by a decent margin, so he hasn’t just fallen in, he’s been very impressive.”

Gandolfini will have at least one travelling companion on the road from Port Macquarie to Tuncurry with both, or one of, Sweet Marlene and Kooky to take part in Monday’s action.

South Australian-bred mare Sweet Marlene is guaranteed her share of admirers among the punting public when she steps out in the Seabreeze Hotel South West Rocks Maiden Plate (1000m).

Whilst winless after a dozen starts, the first seven of those in South Australia and Victoria for her original trainer Phillip Stokes, Sweet Marlene has posted two of her total four seconds since her change of address.

“She’s been really consistent,’’ Schmidt said. “She just needs to find her right race.

“She’s certainly no world-beater but she will definitely win one

“She’s drawn a bit awkward, it could be tricky from where she gets to from out there, but she has been racing well and she races good when she’s fresh.

“She has missed a couple of runs because of the wet weather so she is spaced between her runs which won’t hurt her.”

Sweet Marlene boasts some residual value post-racing, given her thoroughly commercial pedigree.

Her dam, Amandine, won six races, four of them at Moonee Valley.

Six of her 11 offspring won at least one race, led by the Paul Messara trained Mic Mac whose nine wins include the Group 2 STC Hobartville Stakes and MRC Memsie Stakes as well an Aurie’s Star at Civic Stakes.

Schmidt meanwhile will make a race-day decision on whether the stable recruit Kooky will undertake the 100km float journey after sizing up the weather and/or any improvement in the Tuncurry track, rated a Heavy 10 on Sunday.

“I am just a little concerned about a heavy track first-up after a long time off,’’ the once jockey, now trainer said.

“Obviously she’s been off the scene for a while so we just wanted to give her a nice little easy hit out in the trial.

“She’s done plenty of work at home.

“I took her really slow coming back into work so she’s had a really good grounding underneath her.

“There is nothing quite like race fitness but I have her as forward at home as I possibly could.”

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MUDGEE trainer David Smith is banking on one of country racing’s most prolific jockeys to coax a well-earned, yet infrequent win, out of former Leilani Lodge resident Commando Jack at Dubbo today.

Smith joins forces with Clayton Gallagher, whose last ride was at Royal Randwick on the weekend aboard Gallant Star’s stablemate Rouge Moulin, who clocked in twelfth of the 16 Country Championships Final participants.

For the record, Gallagher’s tally of wins for Gallant Star and Rouge Moulin’s trainer, Brett Robb, sits at 97 with the pair combining three times at Monday’s Dubbo meeting.

Smith can help Gallagher up his present total of Dubbo wins (103) provided Commando Jack’s inside draw in today’s Marty Nelson Refrigeration Benchmark 58 Handicap (1600m) doesn’t work against him.

“Barrier 2 is a little bad for him,’’ Smith says.

“I think that’s what brought him undone there at Orange. He is a horse that has to be left alone, completely out the back, and sometimes when he draws these inside gates he can jump too well and puts himself in a nice spot for any other horse.

“But when the pace slackens in a race and he is sort of there amongst it, he just can’t handle it and he starts doing things wrong and gets on one rein and won’t fully let down.

“Hopefully Clayton can just drop him out to last and leave him alone and if he does, he is going to run it out really strongly and you’ll see a different horse.

“You’ll see a real good turn of foot with him.”

Smith meanwhile has found the perfect race for the barn’s lightly-raced Might And Power relation, Prizes Galore, to post his first win at start three of his career.

The son of Fernhill/Champagne Stakes and VRC Derby winner Prized Icon ran way above his $41 SP when beaten a diminishing four lengths in a 1300m Orange Maiden.

“I was absolutely stoked with that first-up run,’’ Smith said.

“(Jockey) Donovan (Dillon) was extremely happy with him and said he probably had some of the strongest closing 400m splits, definitely of that race, he said, if not the meeting.

“He really wanted to stick with him.

“Pretty much his only comment coming back was the he is definitely ready for the step up in trip and that he wouldn’t be a maiden for too much longer.’’

Originally published as Tuncurry, Dubbo Monday previews: Cassandra Schmidt-trained Gandolfini the new boss at Port Macquarie