Fresh from celebrating his first provincial win on Saturday afternoon, Orange trainer Michael Plummer is sending a number of chances to Bathurst's Tyers Park on Tuesday with the hope of securing another winner's cheque or two.
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The Towac Park-based trainer is sending Matchfox for the first, Engaging for the fifth and Royal Abbey for the sixth at Bathurst on Tuesday afternoon, just two days after watching Fine Hero storm to an impressive victory over 1000 metres on a heavy track at Gosford.
Spurred by a perfectly-timed run from hoop Adrian Robinson, Fine Hero rolled to a one-length victory at $6 in the Club Terrigal Conditional Benchmark 70 Handicap on Saturday despite being forced three-wide in the sprint.
After jumping from barrier five the 56-rater held mid-field until the turn for home before running over his rivals, eventually cruising past the winning post from Damien Lane's Rastafarian ($16) and Paul Perry's Mr Grumpy ($7.50) in second and third, respectively.
It was the five-year-old's fourth career win from 23 starts but just the second since linking with Plummer, having been shipped to Towac Park from John Moloney's Caulfield stables last year.
His last win came in November last year and Plummer said with three third finishes and a second since that as well, it seemed only a matter of time until the gelding saluted once again.
He was quite confident of that happening last weekend too, especially considering the track.
"It's been so dry he's not really come across any wet tracks but he does like them, his sire liked them too and so did his dam if I recall correctly," Plummer said, his charge now has a win and two placings from five runs on rain-affected courses.
"Adrian rode him perfectly. With the 200-metre sprint it was just about timing when he got to the front and he did a good job, we'll look at a race at Hawkesbury for him in a fortnight which is the same class, but we'll see how he pulls up first."
Of his chances at Bathurst on Tuesday Plummer said he "would've been pretty confident" in Engaging despite an eighth-finish last start, but admitted drawing barrier 10 isn't exactly ideal.
"He ran eighth at Gilgandra but the 800 metres was just far too short for him, he needed the run and the trial before that because he'd had more than a year off," Plummer explained, the five-year-old actually won that trial run too.
"He's coming on well and I think [running over 1108 metres] will be better for him, I would've been pretty confident but for the wide draw, we've got the outside barrier and Bathurst being a tight track, it's not ideal."
While Engaging will run from wide in the Bathurst Toyota Class 1 Handicap his other two have drawn better.
Royal Abbey's a veteran and Plummer said he's looking to run him fit from barrier six, and is hoping Matchfox will get a bit more luck than he has recently from gate seven in the first, the Bathurst Carpet Court Maiden Handicap (1408 metres).
"Matchfox has been really, really unlucky. Last up at Orange he got caught four wide, went in and got caught wide again, got a bump, so hopefully he gets a better run on Tuesday," Plummer said, with Robinson to ride the four-year-old.
"He hasn't gone past 1200 though so the distance is the query, but he's coming along pretty well too."
Sonja Sharp and Alison Smith both have chances running at Bathurst too, the former with Sass'n'Twinkle and the latter with Ateall, Audio Bay and Eyesaw.
Racing starts at Bathurst at 2.10pm on Tuesday afternoon.
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