Top West Australian galloper Cosmic Crusader will begin his Victorian push as favourite in Saturday’s Group 3 $200,00 Bletchingly Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield.
The five-year-old, who had 10 Western Australian starts under Donna Riordan’s guidance before blossoming into arguably the state’s best horse under Michael Grantham for his seven subsequent outings, was transferred to the stables of former jumps jockey Andrea Leek in late April.
Bob and Sandra Peters, who own the gelding, have previously experienced success when sending horses to Leek’s husband, John Jr.
“We’ve had him about 10 weeks or something like that,” Andrea Leek told Punters.
“He’s beautiful to deal with. A real pleasure.
“He’s a big, strong athletic horse. You wouldn’t get a nicer-looking horse.
“He’s exciting, the boy.”
Now based in Pakenham, Leek said the son of Maurice was thriving in his new environment, a 72.5-acre property featuring undulating gallops amongst fields of livestock.
“They just seem to thrive. We do it a little bit differently out here,” Leek said.
“We’ve got the hills, and they just seem to really enjoy it.
“We’ve got the cows and everything out here. We sort of push the cows to the side and we gallop the horses up the hills.
“Sometimes the cows move back in our way, but it usually works well.”
Cosmic Crusader warmed up for this with a solid jumpout showing under jumps hoop Luca Remondet at Caulfield three weeks ago when crossing the line with accomplished sprinter Pop Award.
The attractive bay’s rating of 110 is clearly the highest in this weekend’s lineup and he is the $3.80 market leader ahead of Winnasedge ($4.40), Miraval Rose ($5) and 2024 winner Recommendation ($7).
Bob Peters said he had initially planned for his galloper to trial twice before Saturday, though shifted tack after careful consideration.
“I was thinking we might trial him twice over there to get him ready for the Peter Lawrence (1400m on August 15) but this race looked a good one to start him off in and then we’ll go to the Lawrence second-up,” Peters said.
“That means he’ll get to the Memsie (Stakes) third-up and he’s been off the scene for a while, so he’ll need those runs for his fitness.”
Meanwhile, 14 horses are entered to start in Saturday’s Listed $125,000 H G Bolton Sprint (1200m) at Belmont, headed by last-start victor Immortal Bliss.
After brilliantly taking the Beaufine Stakes (1000m) two weeks ago, Immortal Bliss has fared better at the barrier draw from gate six.
He meets Beaufine runner-up Twisted Steel two kilos worse for that three-quarter-length triumph as he rises from the minimum handicap to 56kg.
Twisted Steel is also much better positioned from barrier two, outside only Simon Miller-trained stablemate Madhi Girl.
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