Trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace will be chasing a local Ballarat Cup win with one of their four-pronged attack in Thought Of That, Charleise, Bonvicini and Bartholomeu Dias all running on Saturday.
Favourite Thought Of That comes into the race in a rich vein of form having won three on the trot and Eustace feels he’s found his rhythm again which should take him a long way this weekend.
“He’s found his rhythm again,” Eustace said on SEN Track’s Bensley.
“Confidence is a big thing with horses and it shouldn’t be underestimated, he had a couple of narrow defeats and races that didn’t go quite to plan.
“He got dropped in grade to a race in Sale where Josh Richards rode him and he won and he hasn’t looked back since.
“Hopefully he can repeat the dose again, the key is obviously he’s had to continue to go up in grade and he jumps up around two grades, but comes down in the weights and carries 54.5kg against horses that have been going through the majority of spring.
“We’re looking forward to it.”
With rain predicted to fall on race day, Eustace feels the track should hold up, albeit depending on when the rain hits the region of Ballarat.
“It’s currently a soft 6 and will be drying quite well with a drop of rain due at around 11 o’clock but not much, the key will be what time it arrives on Saturday and how much,” he said.
“I tell ya, it’ll get to a 5ish by Saturday morning and then however much rain falls on the day will play a huge part.
“It’s fantastic that everyone’s going to be back for this day, it’s been a long time coming … we’re really looking forward to it.”
Having seemingly won just about every race in Australia, the Ballarat Cup has eluded the powerhouse that is Ciaron Maher and David Eustace Racing.
Thought Of That, who is currently rated a $3.60 chance, will be ridden by Linda Meech from barrier 7.
