Further Group One targets for Richards this weekend

[Chief Stipe]

An improvement in track conditions is crucial for Probabeel’s Group One mission at Randwick on Saturday.

After notching his seventh Group One victory for the season, Jamie Richards’ attention will span the Tasman in his quest for further major honours this weekend.

Yourdeel completed the two-year-old autumn Group One double in Saturday’s Courtesy Ford Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes, completing a perfect hat-trick for Richards after he and former training partner Stephen Autridge had won the previous two editions with Melody Belle and Avantage.

Alongside his 2018-19 Group One septet, Richards also came up with a Karaka trifecta headed by Probabeel, while other highlights include the fresh-up win by Avantage in last week’s Gr. 3 Birthday Card Stakes at Rosehill.

Like the Te Akau standout, five-time Group One winner Melody Belle, the season is over for Yourdeel, but Richards himself is far from done. He heads to Sydney today to oversee Probabeel’s Tuesday morning gallop ahead of her weekend assignment in the Gr. 1 Inglis Sires’ assignment.

Probabeel ran on late in her Sydney debut when unsuited by the heavy footing and her trainer is hoping for an improvement in track conditions for Saturday’s A$1 million feature.

“The reports from Sydney are that Probabeel has done well since her first-up run; I just hope that the weather over there improves,” Richards said.

Ahead of the first Randwick race meeting for a month, the track was this morning rated Slow 7 after 35.6mm of rain in the last seven days, but crucially nothing in the last 24 hours.

Richards will also saddle up his New Zealand Derby runner-up In A Twinkling, who will be backing up from his fifth placing in Saturday’s Tulloch Stakes in the A$2 million Australian Derby.

“We were happy with that run, he stayed on well and did enough to stay in the frame for the Derby,” Richards said.

Back on the home front Richards will be out to wrap up the domestic Group One season with Our Abbadean in the Fiber Fresh New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes at Te Aroha.

“She’s come back very well and the way she’s been going it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see her run a bold mile,” he added. “It’s been an unbelievable season for the team, so all we can hope is for it to keep going for a while yet.”

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