Steven O’Dea and Matthew Hoysted name leading chances for Caloundra Cup

Training duo Steven O’Dea and Matthew Hoysted are hoping to keep their incredible season strike rate in order as top chances return for the final weeks of the Winter Carnival.

Leading trainers Steven O'Dea and Matthew Hoysted. Picture: Facebook

Training duo Steven O’Dea and Matthew Hoysted are hoping to keep their incredible season strike rate in order in the final weeks of the Queensland Winter Carnival.

The Eagle Farm pairing hold the best Queensland Metropolitan strike rate with a 27.7 win and 49.5 place percentage from just 184 starts.

With the stable boasting six runners for the Eagle Farm card on June 25 and hopes of a further four to compete at the Caloundra Cup race day on July 2, Hoysted said he hoped their leading chances could continue to perform in the coming weeks.

“We’ve been a bit quieter on the runner front in the last few weeks as it’s obviously pretty hard to be coming into the Winter Carnival with that same ammunition,” he said.

“We strategically sort of tipped a few horses out over the carnival to give them little freshen ups so our number of runners will really bulk up in the coming weeks ahead of what is on paper our biggest day in the Saturday Group 1 event.”

Jockey Boris Thornton rides Tumbler Ridge to victory in race 3, the QTIS 2YO Handicap, during Saturday race day at Eagle Farm on March 7, 2020. Picture: Albert Perez.

With more than $1m on offer across the entire Caloundra Cup card, Hoysted said he had high hopes for a number of the stable’s leading runners.

“We’ll have Tumbler Ridge heading into our main race the Glasshouse Handicap and then at this stage we’re looking like having a couple of other runners in the benchmark and three-year-old races,’ he said.

“The likes of Thatfeelsbetter and Ocean Treaty will be back at the races there and Ocean Treaty is a nice progressive stayer who will run first up and can be effective over 1400m on the big track.

“She’s come back in really good order and then Thatfeelsbetter is a nice progressive horse as well who is chasing a bit of QTIS money at the tail end of the season.

“Kingston’s Here is another of our main ones who obviously took it all before him last prep and was able to string a few wins together before he was narrowly beaten, but he’s another nice horse that has come up really good this preparation.”

Primal Lockdown 🌋🦣🔒⬇️

Excitement abounds ahead of his debut tomorrow @BrisRacingClub Doomben — He certainly impressed a few with his recent trial @SCTurfClub#eyesontheprize#powerstance#powerstanceposing#presence#rubick#debut#racehorse#primal#lockdownpic.twitter.com/MlCGVPoOvI

— O'Dea Hoysted Racing (@odearacing) June 14, 2022

Hoysted said he was understanding of three-year-old gelding, Primal Lockdown’s debut after an earlier trial win on the Sunshine Coast poly track.

“Yeah he was good, he’s still very much quite raw and quite new as he only had a jumpout and a trial heading into that first up effort last Wednesday,” he said.

“The gate probably mapped to be a little bit sticky as he jumped from five and those underneath him had some gate speed so it probably just made him do that extra work early which softened him up and in turn the eventual winner just peeled off his back and was just a little bit too good.

“He’ll probably step up to 1400m now and he’ll only continue to improve with the more racing he has so I think you’ll probably see the best of him in about six months’ time.”

Originally published as Steven O’Dea and Matthew Hoysted name leading chances for Caloundra Cup