By Alan Carasso
Darren Weir has trained the winners of better than 2500 races in a career that peaked with a championship season in 2015-2016. Not one of those victories has come in Sydney, but Palentino (Aus) (Teofilo {Ire}) will attempt to set that record straight as the 126-pound starting highweight in Saturday's G1 TAB Epsom H. at Royal Randwick.
Upset winner of last year's G1 Australian Guineas over this 1600-metre journey, the chestnut closed some ground two back to be fifth to the in-form Black Heart Bart (Aus) (Blackfriars {Aus}) in the G1 Memsie S. (1400m) at Caulfield, but managed to turn the tables with a one-length defeat of that blue-collar runner in the G1 Makybe Diva S. (1600m) at Flemington Sept. 10. He'll be forced to give weight all around, and Weir is going to experiment with an equipment change.
“Jarrod McLean runs my Warrnambool stable and rides him in his work and he said after the Makybe Diva he had been really well in himself but a little bit tricky to ride,” Weir told AAP. “He said if you went to change a stirrup iron or something like that he'd try to jump out from underneath you. So he asked me if he could work him in blinkers one morning and I said 'no problem'. He worked him in blinkers and said he was terrific.”
Hauraki (Aus) (Reset {Aus}) belied double-digit odds to defeat Le Romain (Aus) (Hard Spun) first-up in the G2 Tramway S. (1400m) at this venue Sept. 3 and was hardly disgraced last time, finishing 1 1/4 lengths adrift of Horse of the Year Winx (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}) in the G1 George Main S. over course and distance.
The Magic Bloodstock silks will be borne atop McCreery (GB) (Big Bad Bob {Ire}), who has progressed through the grades to win the Listed Rowley Mile at Hawkesbury Aug. 18 ahead of a smooth defeat of Metropolitan candidate Sir John Hawkwood (Ire) (Sir Percy {GB}) in the G3 Kingston Town S. at Rosehill Sept. 10.
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