Kembla Grange-based trainer Theresa Bateup is in a rich vein of form at present with two wins (25%) and a further five placings (88%) from her past eight runners, and she looks to continue the momentum when she lines up starters at Gosford, Hawkesbury and Kembla Grange this week.
Bateup has the honest Foxtrot Bravo engaged in the Benchmark 64 over 1900m at Gosford on Tuesday, and she is confident the five-year-old is now ready to show his best third-up from the spell.
“He’s going super,” Bateup said.
“He’s never been a horse that we’ve had huge rap on, but he just tries so hard and he’s come back better this preparation.
“Nothing surprises me with him now and you know you are going to get 110% every time he steps out.”
Bateup then heads to Hawkesbury on Wednesday with her Proisir gelding Shaka Rock, a horse she has been trying to find a surface with plenty of give in the ground. With wet weather forecast in the region over the next 48 hours, Bateup is hopeful of getting her wish.
“I’ve been dying to get him onto a wet track,” Bateup said.
“I was going to get him on a wet track here at Kembla Grange a couple of starts ago but of course they got called off before they got to his race.
“It was a much better effort from him last start and hopefully that’s given him a bit of confidence.”
At Kembla Grange this Saturday, Bateup has an interestingly-named runner called Alan lining up in the Class 1 Handicap over 1200m. The five-year-old got his name from the ‘Alan Alan Alan, Steve Steve Steve’ marmot meme that has been popular online.
“Alan and Foxtrot Bravo came in together and they used to call out to each other,” Bateup mused.
“A couple of the girls working for me started calling him Alan because of this.
“So his half-brother came in and of course we tried to name him Steve.
“That wasn’t available so his race name is Steve Steve Steve and he won his first start at Wagga a couple of weeks ago.”
As for her recent run of form, Bateup is grateful for her staff and is looking forward to the future.
“It’s not too bad considering one of the wins was at Randwick and one of the third placings was in a $700,000 race (Four Pillars),” Bateup said.
“We’ve got a nice team and I’m very excited about my bunch of two and three-year-olds coming through.”