Fred Best Classic Hopefuls Set Sights on TAB Stradbroke Handicap
Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Fred Best Classic hopefuls Hightail and Exhilarates are currently within the final field limit for the TAB Stradbroke after the declaration of first acceptances for the Group 1 sprint yesterday.
Hightail sits in 15th position on the order of entry for the Stradbroke, to be run at Eagle Farm on Saturday week.
Exhilarates now is 17th on the order and seemingly safe for the field of 18 when final acceptances are due next Tuesday.
However the winner of the Fred Best Classic and the Hel Coughlan Stakes, both run at Doomben on Saturday, are exempt from the Stradbroke ballot.
Theoretically Exhilarates would slip to 19th – the first emergency position – if the Best and Coughlan winners leapfrog her on the qualifying order.
Hightail’s trainer Peter Snowden is not keen to run Hightail in the Best Classic and back up a week later in the Stradbroke now he is assured of a start.
But Snowden is keeping his options open for the minute. “I’ll see how Hightail comes along in the next few days. I can leave a decision about a run this Saturday until race morning,’’ he said.
At least Exhilarates has form when racing within eight days. She won at the Gold Coast in January last year and landed the Magic Millions Classic a week later.