A big last-start effort suggests Canterbury pacer Tom Martin can win again at Ascot Park today
The southern-bred 4yr-old powered to an effortless victory on his last trip south from Graham Court’s West Melton stable early last month.
A wide draw and a tough trip parked outside the leader in his last start at Addington stopped Tom Martin from making it two in a row.
“I was really pleased with his run at Addington. He was just a victim of circumstance,” Court said.
Sheree Tomlinson, who now works for the Court stable, drives Tom Martin today in the hope that she can secure a penalty-free junior driver’s win for the 4yr-old.
“He has won four and he has only had 14 starts, so if I don’t look after him he will be up in the grades too far,
so hopefully he can get a win with the junior driver’s concession.
“He should be hard to beat. He has trained on well since his last run, so I am expecting a good run.”
Tom Martin will not have things all his own way when he takes on a handy field in race 9.
Talented mares Bridesdale Robyn and Born To Boogie add to depth to an intriguing race.
The Court-trained Endless Dreams comes south for race 5 after running a creditable fifth behind Aladdin on debut in a strong maiden field at Addington.
Her trainer has a decent opinion of the 3yr-old.
“She has had a good few trials. She trialled pretty good as a 2yr-old and then we had the lockdown.
“She had got a bit of talent and I think she will be pretty hard to beat.”
Endless Dreams clashes with arguably one of the horses most unlucky not to have won a maiden race in Wattlebank Lass.
The Peter Hunter-trained 4yr-old produced excellent form recently against smart maiden winners Dont Lie To Me, Sweet Lizzie and Avana.
Magic Sign debuts for the Court stable in race 4.
“He trialled good at Rangiora the other day.
“He is only a novice at this stage of things, but I expect him to go a good race.”
Magic Sign ran second behind Hattie, who went on to run second at Addington on Sunday, in his Rangiora trial.
His main rival is clearly The High Ruler.
The Brett Gray-trained 3yr-old unleashed scorching 55.5sec (800m) and 27.6 (400m) closing splits when qualifying at Winton last month.
The High Ruler, unbeaten in four public appearances, returned to the same track a fortnight later to win a workout in his latest outing in preparation for his race debut.
