Spring heating up for Icebath

[Wandering Eyes]

New Zealand-bred mare Icebath (NZ) (Sacred Falls) will be out to add to her burgeoning resume when she contests the Gr.2 Theo Marks Stakes (1300m) at Kembla Grange on Saturday.

The daughter of Sacred Falls made a pleasing start to her spring preparation with a first-up third placing in the Gr.3 Show County Quality (1200m) last month and trainer Brad Widdup is looking forward to witnessing her progress this weekend.

“She was caught wide and didn’t get a lot of luck. She gave the first couple of horses three and four kilos, so it was a good, tough run,” Widdup said. 

“You just want to see them race well (first-up) and that’s what she did.” 

The Hawkesbury trainer is eyeing the Gr.1 Epsom Handicap (1600m) at Randwick on October 2 with his five-year-old, who has been tantalisingly close to feature race success in the past.

Icebath has twice been narrowly beaten in feature races, run down late by Colette in the A$7.5 million Golden Eagle (1500m) and again nabbed in the shadows of the post by Cascadian in the Gr.1 Doncaster Mile (1600m). 

Icebath has drawn an awkward alley of nine on Saturday and while expecting a bold showing, Widdup said she will once again take improvement from the run.

“She’s getting there. She will probably need this run again and then she’ll be right, but that’s the whole plan, to have her right third and fourth up,” he said. 

“These types of horses, you want them running well and running in the first three, but you don’t want to stuff your chances up down the track. 

“She needs to run but we won’t be doing anything too silly. It’d be nice to get a bit of cover and hit the line.” 

Following Saturday’s test, Icebath will have one more run in the Gr.2 Golden Pendant (1400m) before backing up in the Epsom.

She was a $9.50 chance with TAB fixed odds on Thursday, with the speedy Big Parade a $3.10 favourite to make a successful transition to stakes grade.

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