By Isaac Murphy
Litter mates Night Cry and Sutton’s Lass occupy box one and two in tomorrow night’s Eric Thomson Memorial Maiden Final and trainer Peter Young couldn’t be happier than to kick start their careers in the time-honoured race.
Young said he’d had high expectations for Night Cry who won his heat in impressive fashion at a healthy $11 each way quote, but thought the dog had a little left in reserve for this week.
“Very pleased with the result, he did what he had to do but he was still very green,” Young said.
“We’ve got high expectations for him and once he learns to handle that track a little better, he should have some time off that 30.50.”
Night Cry switches the black rug for the red this week and Young hopes he can buck the trend of his trials and secure a forward position at the post.
“He went well from out wide in his heat, he doesn’t crash for the fence just works his way across, but with the red this week it’ll be a new challenge, he’s just hesitated before accelerating off the inside draws in his trials.” Young said.
“I’m still very confident his ability will take him a long way, but in a Maiden series like this you never quite know how the him and the other dogs will react under different conditions.”
Sutton’s Lass get a lot her own way in her heat, but Young was ecstatic with her chasing ability, grabbing third with plenty of excuses.
“I was almost more pleased with her run than his. She didn’t have a lot go her own way and just fought on into the placings,” Young said.
“I actually put her in the heats as a trial with the rough chance of making the final and she managed to pull it off.”
“She was a long way off Night Cry early in the piece, but everything we’ve done with her since she’s just got better and better. She’s closing the gap and should give a really good account of herself in the final, where she jumps alongside her litter mate in box two.”
Young said the series was one of the toughest in Queensland and was hoping to couple education with success in the race.
“It’s such a bonus to start their careers in a race like this. There’s no guarantees with Maidens. You have to learn on the run and I’m glad they’re getting an education in a quality field,” Young said.
“Owning the dogs has given us the chance to be patient with them, we’d rather wait a couple of months for a race like the Eric Thomson than throw them in your typical maiden a couple of months earlier.”
Regardless of Thursday’s result Young believes he has a potential top grader in Night Cry and will look at picking out a few age races for him to target.”
“We think Night Cry is a really promising prospect and hopefully be a really classy dog one day.” Young said.
“With that in mind we’ll be extra careful not to over race him and make sure it’s quality over quantity.”
“That’s not to put a knock on Sutton’s Lass. Her immediate future will be around maturing up, where we think Night Cry is ready to win races sooner rather than later.”
The promising duo are continuing a line of success for Young who sent brood bitch Visualize It to Fernando Bale, who have produced a classy litter.”
“We sent Visualize It down to Victoria to breed with Fernando Bale, she won the Futurity in her racing career and has gone on to be a very good brood bitch for us,” Young said.
“We took three pups and the rest were sold off, with a couple in Queensland having some really good success.”
“Tony Brett has Spookie Vision who’s won multiple races at Albion Park and Ipswich and John Catton has Jasper the Jet who also has a handful of wins, all things considered I don’t think we’re far behind them.”