Scone, Queanbeyan preview: Trainer Mark Minervini is set to unleash a promising youngster

Trainer Mark Minervini takes the wraps off a highly promising three-year-old who could prove to be the bargain buy of the Easter sales.

Mark Minervini expects another good effort from Raay Of Dreams at Scone on Tuesday. Picture: AAP Image

Mark Minervini bought a yearling at Easter in 2020 to sell as a Ready To Run two-year-old but is instead on his way to Scone to watch the now three-year-old win for he and his wife.

Named Quick Tempo, the son Rubick, was knocked down to Minervini for $20,000 at the Easter Round 2 Sale.

Only one lot at the entire action went for less.

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Trainer Mark Minervini has Quick Tempo ready to make his debut after two impressive trials. Picture: Grant Guy

But now, the horse that no one wanted - Minervini aside - has a few more fans after back-to-back trials wins of the highest calibre.

“After his two trials, we’ve had some interest from Hong Kong but (a sale) hasn’t happened yet so he makes his debut at Scone on Tuesday,” Vormista’s trainer revealed.

“We are going there optimistic that he is going to be very hard to beat.

“His trials have been very good. He was a bit slow away at his first trial but he soon got outside the leader and came away. Tom Sherry rode him in his second trial at Wyong and he rounded them up pretty quickly out wide.

“That’s a little bit difficult to do at Wyong. It’s a tight track and you rarely see horses get out wide and round them up pretty easily like he did,

“Races and trials are different so I am not getting ahead of myself but I am thinking he is a pretty smart horse.

“I bought Quick Tempo to prepare for the Ready To Run sale last October but he just wasn’t ready,” Minervini explained.

“We nominated him but we withdrew him so we have just taken our time with him but he is ready to go now. Touch wood, he is one-hundred per cent so I am looking forward to it.”

Mikayla Weir takes the ride on Quick Tempo at Scone on Tuesday. Picture: Grant Guy

Minervini’s other runner at Scone on Tuesday is the relatively recent stable recruit Raay Of Dreams who lines-up for her fourth start since making the short stroll over from the Kris Lees yard.

The daughter of former European Champion Sprinter Dream Ahead beat only one other horse home at her first two appearances for the former Morphettville master before a much-improved run at Muswellbrook 11 days ago.

“She has taken me a little while to get a handle on her,” Minervini said.

“I was probably too easy on her when I first got her from Kris Lees but those runs have really brought her on. She looks in great nick and from the draw I imagine she will be a bit closer on Tuesday.”

Raay Of Dreams has only won twice in her 14 starts which belies her early promise.

The now five-year-old mare won her third ever start at Doomben beating Bigboyroy just two weeks after she clocked in third behind Alligator Blood at the Sunshine Coast.

Raay Of Dreams is a pedigree buff’s dream owing to the fact that her tenth dam is Entreaty - forever remembered as the mother of the immortal Phar Lap.

DRYDEN ENJOYS EXCITEMENT AHEAD OF STAR’S RETURN

If 2019 Kosciuszko winner Handle The Truth isn’t the first horse snapped up by a 2021 slot-holder, he will be if they listen to what trainer Keith Dryden has to say about him.

There are just 54 days remaining until the fourth running of the $1.3 million feature and the mail is that Handle The Truth is flying.

“I have a GPS tracking system on my horses and I have a guy that interprets the finer aspects for me and he said ‘look Keith, he is going as good as, or better, than last time in’. I was pretty happy to hear that,” Dryden reported.

“If everything holds together and we don’t get too much rain, he will jump out here at Canberra on Wednesday and then he will trial at either Moruya or the Canberra meeting on the following Saturday.

“Then there is a Listed race over 1100m in a couple of weeks’ time at Rosehill that he will go to.”

Dryden’s immediate focus however centres on Tuesday’s rescheduled Canberra meeting from last week which has shifted to what promises to be a very soggy Queanbeyan surface.

Handle The Truth is coming along nicely ahead of another shot at the Kosciuszko. Picture: AAP Image

So much so that Dryden, like a lot of trainers, are using Thursday’s Wagga meeting as insurance.

One of the string that is likely to run if the meeting proceeds is relatively new stable recruit More Excitement who raced twice for Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou in the summer and twice for Dryden in the winter.

More Excitement, who turned four (literally) on Saturday, is yet to place but has been nothing short of an eye-catcher each time, making up many lengths in shorter races.

“She raced well first-up and was okay on the synthetic after that but she is looking for more ground too so she will be better suited in this 1400,” Dryden said.

“She is a light framed sort of horse so I don’t jam a lot of work into her. After this we will go to a mile and see where we are at.”

More Excitement is a half-sister to Red Excitement who debuted against Pierro in the 2011 Breeders’ Plate but will forever be remembered for stretching the great Winx to her unparalleled best in arguably the most dramatic of all her 37 wins.

Originally published as Scone, Queanbeyan preview: Trainer Mark Minervini is set to unleash a promising youngster