By Ray Hickson
Trainer Matthew Dale says he’s done the best he can to compensate for having to wait four extra days to kick off Molly Nails’ winter campaign at Warwick Farm on Wednesday.
The Precise Air Handicap (1200m) was transferred to the midweek program when it was one of five races lost from last weekend’s Rosehill card.
Dale said he’s always had the race in mind for the six-year-old’s resumption and while there are negatives with the switch of venue he can’t fault her build up.
Molly Nails was being saddled up for her race when the meeting was called off due to poor visibility caused by persistent rain but she’s taken no harm from the extra road trip.
“She worked on the treadmill on Sunday, I gave her a bit of work on Monday morning. It’s not an ideal lead up,’’ Dale said.
“I was probably keener on her on Saturday because I had that race planned from a fair way out and now we’ve been thrown that curve ball of the variable.
“It depends how heavy the track is, she’s won on a heavy track at Rosehill and I was happy with that.
“The fence could be off and you’ve drawn three in a relatively big field. We won’t panic, we’ve got the horse right.
“It’s late in the day and we’ll assess how the track is playing and what we can do to best offset it.”
It’s noticeable that Molly Nails, $9.50 with TAB on Tuesday, hasn’t trialled officially since she wrapped her last campaign with an easy win at Canterbury.
However, Dale said her preparation has been comparable to leading into her first-up run going into the spring, where she ran third behind Smashing Eagle at Rosehill, coming off a year’s break.
“She’s had three unofficial half mile jump outs which is pretty usual for me,’’ he said.
“Sometimes they’ll have two, sometimes they’ll have three, but that’s pretty common to how she was produced first-up last time.
“We’re going to sprint her this time, no further than 1300m I reckon, and treat her a bit differently.”
Dale is the reigning Kosciuszko winning trainer and with the build up to the 2024 edition kicking off soon it’s the time of year we go looking for possible contenders.
He’s unsure whether Molly Nails is one who could be aimed at the $2 million race, alongside stablemate and dual winner Front Page, but she’s already ticked a couple of the boxes he says is needed to be a genuine chance.
“You’ve got to be Saturday grade competitive, borderline Listed competitive, and you’ve got to be able to handle pressure,’’ he said.
“It comes around pretty quickly because of the build up toward it.”
The Goulburn trainer is expecting Spitfire to put in his best run of the campaign so far in the Admire Mars At Arrowfield Handicap (1600m) now he’s getting into his comfort zone.
Molly Nails wins at Canterbury in January
The gelding finished midfield in the Country Cup at Scone last month and is proven at the track and distance.
“He goes quite well at Warwick Farm, the wet track suits,’’ Dale said.
“Third-up at a mile he’s much better placed than his first two runs. As an older horse now he’s a mile-2000m horse and he ran really well at Warwick Farm last time in so I think he can run an improved race.”
All the fields, form and replays for Wednesday’s Warwick Farm meeting
