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Joe Pride has never shied away from sending star sprinter Eduardo into a battle with the world’s best sprinter but he says Nature Strip’s absence from the race named in his honour at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday is huge for his chances.
The Warwick Farm trainer has always said he’d love to take Nature Strip on at Rosehill but with him sitting out the $3 million Nature Strip Stakes (1300m) it should enable Eduardo to run a more controlled race.
And atone for his failure in the Everest two weeks ago.
“He runs along at a good speed and it sets up well for everything else, because of the tempo Eduardo runs every horse always gets their chance,’’ Pride said.
“There’s no Nature Strip which is handy for Eduardo because he’s been obviously a pretty big thorn in our side.
“While we have been able to beat him sometimes when he is in the race we generally have to go really quick.”
Of course Pride had to experience the mixed emotions of sending Eduardo and stablemate Private Eye into the Everest with high hopes only to watch Eduardo weaken as Private Eye hit the front before being nabbed near the line by Giga Kick.
He said he can see no physical reason why the nine-year-old won’t return to his best form having examined everything about his Everest run and the horse in the days after.
He considered applying a tongue tie but when the horse resented it at trackwork Pride elected to use the same gear as he carried on Everest day.
“The only way I could justify it in my mind was if there was some kind of wind problem with him that day,’’ he said.
“He hasn’t got a wind problem as such but that’s why I thought I might try the tongue tie just in case he put his tongue over the bit or something like that. But he genuinely hates it so I’m not going ahead with it.”
It was Eduardo's actual birthday when he won the Nature Strip last year, when named after the 2020 Everest winner Classique Legend, and if he wins the race, one day prior to his cake day in 2022, it’s worth a lot more than just the $1.725m first prize.
It’s the final leg of the Sportsbet Sydney Sprint Series and Eduardo is in third place on seven points.
With double points on offer at his favourite track, a win on Saturday would be enough to snare the $2.5m bonus for finishing on top of the leaderboard.
“He absolutely loves that circuit, he scoots around there and runs some of his best races there,’’ Pride said.
“This race last year and the Galaxy, they were really dominant performances. There’s no reason why can’t bounce back to that.
“He’s coming off the back of a failure which is never great but at the same time it was a really out of character failure.
“There’s no reason from a soundness point of view why it happened so I’d like to think he can put it behind him.”
Despite his credentials, Eduardo’s stablemate Private Eye sits higher in the market ($5) and Pride said the Everest runner-up is in superb order.
He’ll naturally get back from the outside barrier and Pride wants him hitting the line strongly with the plan to wrap up his spring in the Champions Mile next weekend.
“He’s going terrific, he’s just turned the corner since the Stradbroke and he’s just a different horse,’’ he said.
“I don’t want to take him to Perth, I don’t want to go to Hong Kong, I could run him in the Ingham (ex-Villiers) and cop top weight but then that could jeopardise the kind of autumn he could have.”
The two upcoming $1 million provincial features are in Pride’s sights with Brutality who makes up the stable trio in the Nature Strip and he’s been an eye-catcher in his two starts this spring over 1200m.
He clocked the fastest last 600m of the Sydney Stakes, running 34.20 (Punter’s Intelligence), second-up and Pride has him on target for The Hunter (1300m) at Newcastle on November 12 and The Gong (1600m) at Kembla Grange a week later.
“He’s been really sharp. He hasn’t been able to keep up but I love the way under pressure, chasing, off the bit he’s been able to run his last 600m so quick,’’ he said.
“It’s probably a bit short again but 1300m at Rosehill is a little different to 1200m at Randwick and he does love Rosehill.”