AS THE Cleaner’s cult status grows, the biggest obstacle he faces as he heads towards the Cox Plate is the weight of public expectation.
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Melbourne’s Channel 7 was here yesterday, TVN will be here tomorrow – the media, even those outlets that pay scant attention to racing for most of the year, are all jumping on the bandwagon.
Luckily, trainer Mick Burles doesn’t have a TV in The Cleaner’s stall and he’s cancelled the seven-year-old’s newspaper subscriptions.
Otherwise, the pressure might start to get the better of the horse.
It certainly won’t get the better of Burles who continues to take all the media hype in his stride.
He is going about his business as usual and sees no need to change the routine that has carried The Cleaner to 17 wins and almost $750,000 in stakes.
That even extends to when he works the horse.
‘‘He still has every weekend off – it would interfere too much with my golf if I had to work him,’’ the trainer quipped.
The Cleaner is one of only three horses already guaranteed a Cox Plate start (the other two are imports here by invitation).
But he first needs to get through Friday night’s $200,000 JRA Cup at Moonee Valley where he is the highest-rated of 18 entries.
A quality handicap, with a maximum topweight of 60 kilograms, the JRA Cup has proved a stepping stone to greatness for some of the horses that have contested the race in recent years.
Master O’Reilly, third in 2007, won the Caulfield Cup three weeks later and Shocking, third in 2009, went on to win the Melbourne Cup.
Maldivian, the 2007 winner, won the Cox Plate the following year.
The Cleaner’s possible rivals on Friday night include last year’s winner Mourinho, Brambles, Precedence, Sangster and Zanbagh.
Pressure on
THE Cleaner won’t be the only Tasmanian under pressure at Moonee Valley’s opening night meeting.
Jockey Craig Newitt will be out to redeem himself on $1.80 favourite Lankan Rupee in the $450,000 Moir Stakes.
Newitt copped plenty of flak over his ride after the star sprinter’s shock first-up defeat.
The always-outspoken Richard Callander said on TVN that Newitt’s ride was ‘‘not up to the standard you expect from a group 1 jockey.’’
Lankan Rupee’s trainer Mick Price said yesterday he expected Newitt to learn from the experience.
‘‘If Craig can’t see what happened in that race, he should be in another profession,’’ Price said.
‘‘The horse charged too much early – to ride him the same way again would be stupid.’’
Cup target
TRAINER Adam Trinder may have added another string to his Devonport Cup bow when At The Weekend won first-up at Elwick on Sunday.
Trinder has already earmarked his home-town feature race for former Sydney stayer Big Time and At The Weekend appears headed in the same direction.
The four-year-old showed great staying potential last season when, on a limited preparation, she was only narrowly beaten in the 1000 Guineas, Strutt Stakes and Tasmanian Oaks.
And, she did her reputation no harm when she finished strongly to score over 1400 metres at her first start for seven months.
‘‘There was a lot of merit in that win because nothing carted her into the race and she had to do it all herself,’’ Trinder said.
‘‘She’ll have another run over 1600m then we’ll put her away in readiness for the cups.’’
Dinner subsidy
THE Launceston Pacing Club is continuing its proactive approach to promoting harness racing by offering a financial incentive for people to attend its annual awards dinner next week.
The club wants as many racing enthusiasts as possible to hear guest speakers James Rattray and Sofie Svensson talk about the rise to fame of their Australian horse of the year, Beautide.
It will subsidise the cost of the meal by 50 per cent, meaning guests will pay only $20 a head instead of the normal $40.
The dinner is at the Tailrace Centre next Tuesday and will be preceded by the club’s annual meeting starting at 7pm.
Beautide returned to racing at Menangle on Saturday night when he drew poorly but finished off strongly for a close third in a group 3 race where the winner rated a sizzling 1:50.1.