Racing: Heavy going for Force Of Will

Force Of Will (No 5) faces a heavy9 track, which won't be to her liking, on the Gold Coast. Photo / Trish Dunell

Trainer Andrew Scott can see the predicament facing his two stable chances tomorrow.

The horse he and partner Lance O'Sullivan have sent to sunny Queensland looks set to cop a heavy track on the Gold Coast, while closer to home at Te Rapa he thinks Cha Siu Bao can win because he will get a drier surface.

The Matamata stable have Force Of Will in the A$150,000 Gold Bracelet for three-year-old fillies on the Gold Coast but she faces a heavy9 track, which won't be to her liking and will make the 1800m testing enough to bring stamina into play.

Victor in the Desert Gold at Trentham four starts ago and a winner against older horses at Ellerslie at her next start, Force Of Will found the 2000m of the Vinery Stakes in Sydney too long while she was a solid but not spectacular fifth in a 1600m race on her Queensland debut last start.

So while Scott has no concerns about her ability or fitness, he worries about the track.

"We didn't really want the wet track for her we look like we are going to get," says Scott. "That won't help and the 1800m will be interesting. So she has a few things against her but she is very well."

The Scott/O'Sullivan stable also have former superstar three-year-old Dragon Leap in Queensland and he will trial on Tuesday before potentially racing at Doomben on May 22.

"He is going well but he is also so laid back at home it is hard to really get a gauge on him, but we should know more after the trial."

Force Of Will is joined at the Gold Coast tomorrow by the Kiwi headline act of the Queensland carnival in Melody Belle, who has her second-last career start in the Hollindale Stakes alongside fellow Waikato gallopers Two Illicit and Tiptronic.

Melody Belle has a wide draw, and although the heavy track could see that turn to an advantage late in the day, the Kiwi trio meet plenty of genuine Group 1 weight-for-age horses.

Closer to home and away from the Queensland wet tracks, Scott believes Cha Siu Bao looks well placed on what could be a dead5 at Te Rapa tomorrow.

Although hardly the easiest galloper to follow, Cha Siu Bao looks to be in a winnable race after solid recent form leading up to a better-than-it-looked ninth in the Easter at Ellerslie last start.

"He was okay that day on a track that didn't suit him because all his wins have come on good or dead tracks," says Scott.

"It looks like he could get that this weekend.

"I think the race stacks up nicely for him. He will be a good each-way chance."

The Te Rapa meeting feels almost like the crossover from flat season to winter jumps racing, with the hurdlers and steeple-chasers sharing the card with the two-year-olds in a $50,000 race.

The boys at the top of the juvenile field will dominate betting, with Rangi Toa, Noverre and last Saturday's Te Rapa winner Turn The Ace all impressive in a few starts so far but a bolter deserving of some respect is Musigny Lass.

She was a stunning winner overcoming a wide draw on this track last start, beating subsequent impressive Ruakaka winner Doubtful Sound, and might be an underrated filly coming from a smaller stable.