Compared to some trainers, Glenn Stevenson prepares only a small team – but no-one is having a better run.
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It’s an indication of the depth in his stable that his second-string runner is a chance in a $100,000 race at Mowbray on Wednesday night.
The Wesley Vale trainer will saddle up I’m Wesley and Killin Falls in the weight-for-age Conquering Stakes.
I’m Wesley, chasing his sixth consecutive win, is entitled to be the more fancied of the duo.
But it wouldn’t be a major surprise if Killin Falls figured in the finish at much longer odds.
Admittedly, favourite Hellova Street would need to have an off-night to get beaten but he will be short.
Punters may have to look for a value runner for the exotics and Killin Falls fits into that category.
The five-year-old has a good record, with six wins and seven placings from 17 starts, and 1400m is close to his best distance.
He is coming off a first-up seventh to I’m Wesley in the Newmarket Handicap when he came from second-last at the top of the straight to be beaten only two lengths.
He recorded the fastest last 400m of the race.
Stevenson has always had a big opinion of Killin Falls.
“He’s been a slow learner but, potentially, he is the best horse I have in the stable,” the trainer said earlier in the year.
I’m Wesley may have pinched that title for the time being but the feature races that suit Killin Falls are still to come.
Stevenson has prepared 11 winners this season from only 28 starters, giving him an almost unheard of strike-rate of 39.3 percent.
Six of his last 12 runners have won.
LONGFORD trainer Bill Ryan has been biding his time so far this season, with only 15 runners in the past four months.
But he pulls out his big guns this week, with star filly Pateena Arena resuming in the $50,000 3YO Cup and Speed Force launching a potential cups campaign in the Conquering.
Ryan galloped both horses between races at Mowbray last week. Neither was pushed out and they went to the line almost on terms.
Pateena Arena hasn’t raced since her back-to-back wins in the $100,000 Elwick Stakes and $100,000 Gold Sovereign in February.
Speed Force’s last appearance was a 2100m win at Mowbray in March.
Five of the past seven 3YO Cups have been won by fillies – Hot Dipped, Gee Gees Top Notch, Arenzano, Buzzing Along and Magnetosphere.
Valiant Warrior (2014) and Quest Master (2013) broke the sequence.
Only Mister Songman and Nordic Thunder stand in the way of another female triumph.