CRANBOURNE trainer Damien Williams will use today’s $15,000 Penshurst Cup as the ideal lead-in race for Tube to score back-to-back wins in the $15,000 Burrumbeet Cup on New Year’s Day.
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Tube should start favourite in the 2000-metre feature race at Penshurst on the back of his last-start third-placing in a restricted race over 1600m at Moonee Valley on December 14.
Williams decided to run Tube in the Penshurst Cup instead of running the eight-year-old in an $80,000 race at Caulfield this afternoon.
“I decided to take the easier option of running in the Penshurst Cup instead of the race at Caulfield,” he said.
“I’m sure we’ll be hard to beat, but you never know what happens in small fields.
“We failed at Bairnsdale two runs back but that is because he fails to handle slow to heavy tracks.
“We were going to take him to the Bordertown Cup a couple of weeks ago but we were worried that the weather might turn nasty, which would affect the track.
“His best efforts are on top of the ground.”
Williams has booked in-form apprentice jockey Jackie Beriman to ride Tube today.
“Jackie’s in great form,” Williams said.
“Her one-and-a-half kilogram claim means Tube comes in on the minimum weight for the race.
“I think that’s pretty good to be on the minimum, especially after he’s won seven races and earned more than $136,000 in stakemoney.
“Having Jackie is a real bonus.
“We’ve drawn barrier five, so she can go forward or sit off the back of them.
“I’m pretty confident we can win if we don’t have any bad luck in the run. We need this run to get him ready for next week’s Burrumbeet Cup.”
Warrnambool-trained galloper Brewski looks the obvious danger to Tube in the Penshurst Cup.
Brewski won his last start in a restricted race at Stawell over 1600m.
Jack Hill has the ride on the Bill and Symon Wilde-trained gelding.
The Penshurst Cup is the sixth race on the seven-race card and will be run at 4.45pm.
