It’s not often a promising galloper bypasses a group 3 race on Saturday to tackle a Class 1 Handicap at the provincials on Monday.
Yet that’s the 48-hour detour for promising three-year-old Southern Prince, which is primed to land consecutive wins at Monday’s delayed Kembla Grange meeting.
Trainers Annabel and Rob Archibald.Credit: Getty Images
The program on a firm surface with the rail out a long way was transferred from Saturday after a section of the track in the straight was deemed unsafe.
It looms as another stepping stone for this son of multiple Group 1 winner Trapeze Artist from the Annabel and Rob Archibald stable at Warwick Farm.
Fresh from a first-up flashing maiden win at Kembla over 1400m where he beat home Waerea, which is considered a big chance in an earlier race, Southern Prince was scratched from Saturday’s feature Group 3 Gloaming Stakes (1800m) at Rosehill.
Instead, she will tackle a far more modest line-up over a mile and is the only runner in the field on the limit weight after jockey Mollie Fitzgerald’s 1.5kg claim.
Meanwhile, progressive four-year-old mare Missie Lee will also be out to notch consecutive wins when she tackles a Class 1 Handicap over 1000m.
And victory would be a real soother for Hawkesbury-based trainer Blake Ryan, which had to watch his smart mare Strawberry Impact charge home into a luckless fourth place in Saturday’s Midway Handicap over 1400m.
Missie Lee has been given 25 days since finishing best to claim her maiden here, clocking a slick 57.30 seconds, and 33.40 seconds for her last 600m, only fractionally slower than the times by the winner of the BM 64 over 1000m that day.
