Payne filly primed for midweek maiden after Kindergarten lesson
Ray Hickson
Trainer David Payne will treat Bangkok Hottie’s win in his maiden preparation as more of a bonus than can be achieved at Warwick Farm today following what he described as a training start at the Group company.
The filly stepped up to the Kindergarten Stakes (1100m) on day one of the Championship and pleased her trainer as she raced into fifth place, some 2¾ furlongs behind Blue Door.
This was a start without a Plan A; He was removed from the Gosford race a few days ago due to a large barrier and Payne decided to give him a trouble-free experience on his first start.
“It was a very good run, I told the owner he wouldn’t disgrace himself and I was very pleased with him,” Payne said.
“I wanted to run at Gosford but he did poorly there so we said we would give him experience on the bigger track.
“I’m sure he should have recovered and an extra 100 meters would have been enough.”
Bangkok Hottie returns for a midweek debut in the Hyland Racing Colors Handicap (1200m) where Payne hopes the lessons he learned at Randwick can be put into practice.
He would have expected Zac Lloyd to take advantage of a gentler barrier to take him into the race.
“The other day I asked him to come back to teach him a lesson,” he said.
“He has speed but I wanted to hide to teach him to calm down because after a mile he will definitely go.
“If you don’t want to start hunting them, you have to teach them to come back.
“If he can win, it would be nice to take him out, take a break and bring him back later. He seems like a progressive type, I always had an opinion of him, so we hope.”
Those watching the trial would not have been fond of Hereward’s shot before his first assignment in the Headwater @ Vinery Handicap (1600m) but Payne warns against reading too much into it.
Payne said this was more or less by design, and he was confident it was in his favor to make the first move.
“It wasn’t a bad trial, we didn’t want him to be shaken up,” he said.
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