Warwick Farm preview: Clarry Conners confident Stolen Jade can turn her fortunes around

This week’s rain couldn’t have come at a better time for Clarry Conners’ mare Stolen Jade who will relish a soft track.

Stolen Jade (left) will appreciate a return to a soft track at Warwick Farm on Wednesday. Picture: Grant Guy

THE prospect of a damp track at Warwick Farm on Wednesday has master trainer Clarry Conners forecasting a return to form from his stunning So You Think replica Stolen Jade.

The five-year-old mare has struggled to build on her early promise so far this campaign with three unusually underwhelming performances in town and at the provincials.

Stolen Jade will, for the first time in recent weeks, get conditions that are tailor-made to post her sixth career win when she lines-up in the ATC Keeneland Handicap over 1200m.

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Trainer Clarry Conners feels a soft track will suit his mare Stolen Jade. Picture: Getty Images

“She has been very disappointing this prep but I am having trouble with her feet and every time lately we have had fairly hard tracks and they are affecting her,” Conners explained.

“She is travelling but when they ask her to stretch out, she doesn’t stretch out.

“There is nothing wrong with the horse at home. She is perfect, she gallops nicely, but I am only running her if the track stays soft. That’s the only reason she is in because I raced her last week but I am looking for a soft track for her.”

Conners intuition is borne out by Stolen Jade’s stats, the most glaring of which is that four of her five career wins have been recorded on Soft tracks.

Conners - the trainer of four Golden Slipper winners – saddles up a grandson of one of the fastest Slipper winners in history on Wednesday. The horse’s name is Rogue Algorithm who is a grandson of the flying Queensland filly Calaway Gal who ran a sizzling 1.08.8 seconds when she won in 2002 beating Victory Vein and Choisir.

Rogue Algorithm is yet to place in his three starts but is clearly a better horse than that and should relish the opportunity to stretch out to 1400m.

“I’ve had little problems with him,” Conners said.

“Immaturity type things while he was growing but he is a lovely horse.

Tommy Berry (pictured) will partner Stolen Jade at Warwick Farm on Wednesday. Picture: Getty Images

“He was doing things early on. He wanted to go too hard. I had a big opinion of him, that’s why he is still a colt, because he showed so much.

“His run was good at Wyong and it looks like the slightly bigger track and the extra ground should suit him.”

Conners third horse racing at Warwick Farm on Wednesday is the cleverly-named Pick The Score.

Pick The Score is a rare grey So You Think, a colour which she has inherited from her former handy Hawkesbury housed mother, Footy Fan.

Pick The Score is blessed with uncommon pace and speed which she has put to good use winning three of her 11 starts so far.

“She is a very fast mare,” Conners said.

“I took her to Newcastle last start to try and get her to settle back and relax a little bit more and the plan didn’t go well.

“She got behind horses and kept running up backsides all the way.

“She is up in class I know that but it is a fillies and mares over 1100m at her home track and she handles it a little bit soft.

“She is very fit and is working the place down so she might run a good race for the owners.”

MNEMENTH READY TO SHOW WHO’S BOSS IN CITY RETURN

Glen Boss’s next two rides for Mitchell Beer are in a midweeker and a million-dollar race and the Albury trainer is confident that they can win both.

The Everest and multiple Melbourne Cup winning jockey’s first engagement for Beer is aboard Eurozone son Mnementh in Wednesday’s ATC Vinery Handicap (1100m) at Warwick Farm.

Four days later, Boss and Beer will reunite in the fourth annual $1.3 million ATC Kosciuszko (1200m) via the noted mudlark Sunrise Ruby who is looking more and more likely to get conditions to suit at Randwick come Saturday.

As for Mnementh, he comes back to Sydney in the best possible shape having won back-to-back races to kick off the new campaign.

Granted both have been in easier races at Wagga and Leeton respectively, but Beer has found his chestnut the easiest possible metro race available.

“Obviously to measure up at midweek level he doesn’t get a better opportunity than Wednesday,” Beer began.

“He is the highest rated horse in the race in a 72 so he is as best placed as he can be.

Trainer Mitchell Beer (pictured) and jockey Glen Boss will combine with Mnementh at Warwick Farm on Wednesday and Sunrise Ruby in the Kosciuszko at Randwick on Saturday. Picture: Grant Guy

“He is a horse that has always had a stack of potential and ability but struggled with niggling issues but he seems to have come back this preparation and he has been faultless really.

“He was four deep the trip in a Highway (last campaign) and had absolutely no luck and was beaten by a very small margin and beat home the likes of Another One.

“Mnementh started second favourite in the Country Championship (Qualifier) here last year but he pulled up with atrial fibrillation so he has just been quite unlucky when he has gone to those better races,” Beer said.

“We have always struggled with his feet too and he has been a horse that has just taken a long time to get right but this time in, we are on top of everything.

“His two wins, albeit in lower grade than what he faces on Wednesday, have been worthy of taking that next step.”

Beer, meanwhile, has a precise hope for what the weather may deliver in the next few days with the Kosciuszko now just days away.

“Hopefully if the stars align it will be a soft track and then after Mnementh goes around, it can pour down and be even wetter by Saturday would be absolutely ideal,” he said.

“But Sunrise Ruby has won a Good 4 and she has won on a Heavy 10. The softer track would be an advantage but it doesn’t have to be bottomless for her to be a winning chance.”

Originally published as Warwick Farm preview: Clarry Conners confident Stolen Jade can turn her fortunes around