Racing
Honest gelding perfect Choice for Litt
Consistent campaigner Romeo’s Choice returns to his pet distance at Rosehill.
Richard Litt is the first to admit it took him a little while to figure out Romeo's Choice but now that he has, he would happily have a stable full of horses as genuine.
The gelding will line up in the Schweppes Sprint (1100m) at Rosehill on Saturday chasing back-to-back wins after a first-up triumph at Warwick Farm on July 2.
That was on a heavy track, a surface Litt initially believed Romeo's Choice didn't relish.
"For the first half of his life I would never run him on a wet track because I didn't think he handled it and then one day I thought, bugger it, we'll send him around at Canterbury," Litt recalled.
"It was a heavy ten and he won by three lengths so I thought, I've been reading the play wrong here.
"He does seem to like any sort of ground. He is the ultimate racehorse."
Romeo's Choice has raced 36 times for six wins, 15 placings and just shy of $400,000 in stakes.
He has form on tracks ranging from good to heavy and while he is yet to win at Rosehill, he has missed a place just once in six starts over Saturday's 1100m journey.
He closed off his last campaign with a Saturday grade win and one thing Litt knows for certain is that Romeo's Choice will give his best.
"He turns up, he tries very hard. He is incredibly loyal and tough. He always gives you 110 per cent," he said.
"It's obviously a massive step up in grade for him. But he is a lovely horse.
"He won in town last start, albeit midweek, and he won a Saturday race before that.
"He definitely won't be the worst horse in that race."
In an open betting market, bookmakers had three $6 equal favourites on Thursday – the resuming Corniche, in-form gelding Storm The Ramparts and the lightly raced South Of India, while Romeo's Choice was being kept safe as a $13 chance.
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