Kendrick hopeful of ending mini city slump

By Glenn Davis

Trainer Stu Kendrick is hoping he has the firepower to end a mini metropolitan form slump when he heads to Doomben on Wednesday.

Kendrick has trained eight winners – all at the provincials - from his past 50 starters and currently leads the Queensland provincial trainers’ premiership with 30 wins - 10 wins clear of Tony Gollan.

It’s in stark contrast to his metropolitan premiership record where he has trained four winners from limited opportunities this season.

Kendrick has six acceptors on the eight-event program and rates Maximum Output in the male’s division of the Class 1 Handicap and Carribean King in the Ratings 0-65 Handicap as his best hopes.

“It’s all about placing horses,” Kendrick said.

“I’ve got a lot of handy horses that are winning at the provincials but there’s no use taking them to the city to run a game fourth when they can win at the provincials.

“I’ve got a lot of my good three-year-olds coming back for the summer so hopefully things will pick up soon.”

Kendrick is confident both Maximum Output and Carribean King will be competitive in the respective races.

Maximum Output – a Michael Cahill mount – has a win and two seconds from his past four starts and is coming off a narrow defeat to the Toby and Trent Edmonds-trained Lime Soda in an 1100-metre Benchmark race at Ipswich on November 4.

“Both of mine have got good chances after they ran second at their last starts,” Kendrick said.

“Maximum Output was a bit unlucky last time when he got bumped on the turn which put him out of stride.

“Once he got balanced up again, he hit the line well and they’ve got a big opinion of Toby’s horse that beat us.”

Carribean King was a $45,000 buy at the Karaka sales in New Zealand and has started five times for two early wins and a second in a Benchmark 65 race at the Sunshine Coast on November 5.

“His last run was good considering it was first up and he only had a soft jump out,” Kendrick said.

“He’s improved a lot and will appreciate going to 1200 metres.”