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Racing

Grace primed to go one better at Cairns

Mackay and Townsville Cup runner-up ready to go one better at Cairns.

SIR GRACE winning the Milne Bros Country Cup Benchmark 60 Handicap
SIR GRACE winning the Milne Bros Country Cup Benchmark 60 Handicap Picture: Matthew Harris/Racing Queensland

Sir Grace has had to settle for second placing at his past two starts, but Warwick Satherley is confident it can be a case of 'third Cup lucky' for his stable star this Saturday at Cairns.

The son of Turn Me Loose will chase a career highlight win in the $150,000 Cairns Cup (2100m).

It follows near-misses in the Mackay Cup (2000m) on July 26 and Townsville Cup (2000m) on August 9, performances that Rockhampton-based Satherley has Sir Grace primed for a peak performance.

"We had a couple of niggling problems going into the Rocky Cup (on July 5) and he hadn't raced for 10 weeks when he ran in the one before the Rocky Cup and the Rocky Cup run was quite good considering he'd had that time off," Satherley said.

"Then, we probably backed him up a little bit too quickly to get some miles into him going into the Mackay Cup.

"His last two runs have been great, he's eating everything, his gallop on Wednesday was enormous and he feels great."

Sir Grace will carry 55.5kg, the bulk of which will be made up by jockey Nathan Thomas, in the 14-horse event, in which he will jump from barrier eight if the emergencies don't start.

He is $5.50 second favourite in the market headed by Smart Legend ($4.60), a recent acquisition to the Steve Massingham stable who finished immediately behind Sir Grace in the Townsville Cup.

The Cairns Cup will be Sir Grace's 18th start and he has finished top-three on 12 occasions, seven of them victories.

He has banked $146,700, which is significantly greater than the $11,000 Satherley paid for Sir Grace, who is raced by his partner Joanna Andersen and sister Sue Satherley, on Inglis Digital.

"He hadn't raced when we bought him, he hadn't even trialled or jumped out," Satherley said of the Kiwi-bred galloper.

"I think he was a bit of a rogue down in Sydney when he was a colt and, next minute, he was online and they didn't want to persevere with him.

"He was still a colt when we bought him, the first thing we did was geld him, and he's been a great horse for us."

The Cairns Cup is part of a competitive eight-race card on Saturday and rounds out their carnival. 


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