By Glenn Davis
Tasmanian trainer Aiden Nunn is hopeful Brilliant Jet can end his Queensland sojourn on another winning note at Doomben on Saturday.
Nunn planned to start Brilliant Jet at the Sunshine Coast last Saturday but delayed his return for a week to run in the Open Handicap (2000m).
The six-year-old will be ridden by Mark Du Plessis and is chasing a hat-trick of wins following his past two victories at Grafton and Doomben.
“I had him down to race at Caloundra last week but he didn’t feel 100 per cent going into the race so I waited a week,” Nunn said.
“He just wasn’t himself and there was also a forecast for rain and he doesn’t like it too wet.
“But he’s now working well again and he galloped strongly at Beaudesert last Saturday morning.”
Nunn, 31, is based at Longford in northern Tasmania and travels the polo circuit each winter in his quest to make the Australian Polo team.
Brilliant Jet hasn’t started since winning over 2200 metres at Doomben on July 28.
“I generally space his runs because he loses a bit of condition after each run,” he said.
“I’ve freshened him up for Saturday and he’s only dropping back 200 metres so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Nunn is winding up his polo commitments in Queensland but will continue them in NSW and Victoria in the coming months.
“I’ll see how he goes on Saturday but if he races well I’ll take him to Sydney for a 2400-metre Listed race at Rosehill next month,” he said.
“I’m not sure if he’ll need another run before then so I’ll go through the calendar to see what’s available.
“I’m in Sydney for all of October playing polo and then I’ll be in Melbourne for another three weeks so I plan to look around for a few more races there as well.”
Nunn has only been training thoroughbreds for six years but has trained polo horses since he left school as a teenager.
Nunn is planning another assault on Tasmania’s feature races with Brilliant Jet.
“He won the Devonport Cup last year and he’ll run in it again before he heads to the Launceston and Hobart Cups next year,” he said.
Racing Queensland webnews September 5