Racing: The Eagle has landed for Kiwi trainer Tony Pike

Babylon Berlin (R6, No 1 at Eagle Farm in Brisbane) has won both her starts on heavy tracks. Photo / Trish Dunell

Caretaker trainer Tony Pike realises how rare it is to be gifted a mare as fast as Babylon Berlin for an overseas campaign.

So he is hoping the change of tracks instigated by Queensland racing officials for Saturday's Doomben 10,000 meeting helps the pair start their association with a A$150,000 victory.

Pike has been given Babylon Berlin and three-year-old Ruach to train for the Queensland winter with regular trainer Ben Foote too busy to make the trip for just two horses when Pike was already taking a string.

He also has another high-speed mare in Letzbeglam also stabled with his large team as her regular trainer Lance Noble is unlikely to be in Queensland for her whole campaign, so she will also race under Pike.

Pike says he and the other Kiwi trainers with horses racing at Saturday's huge meeting were relieved to see the meeting transferred from Doomben across the road to Eagle Farm at acceptance time on Wednesday to avoid a bog.

"Eagle Farm is a really good drying track and we had horses work there on Tuesday and the track was very good," explains Pike.

"But if they get the rain we think they are going to get and it had stayed at Doomben it could have been called off.

"A lot of the tracks here are just waterlogged so the decision to move the meeting is the right one."

While Babylon Berlin (R6, No 1) has won both her starts on heavy tracks, they were in far lesser company and as one of the fastest horses in New Zealand a true heavy would dull her brilliance. Pike is happy with suggestions the track could play as a slow7 or slow8 would have been in New Zealand until the ratings were changed recently.

"I am still getting to know her and she is very much Ben's horse but she is very fast and clearly the best horse in her race," says Pike.

"With her speed I can see her being handy, maybe outside the leader, and then being in front at some stage in the straight and it being a matter of whether she can hold on.

"Her 59kg is a lot but she has James [McDonald, jockey] and taking a line through her form around Levante, Entriviere and Roch 'N' Horse she has to be hard to beat."

Pike is still also getting to know Ruach who faces the toughest test of his short career against temporary stablemate Tutukaka and fellow Kiwi reps Dark Destroyer and Pinarello in the A$250,000 Rough Habit Plate.

"Both of them [Ruach and Tutukaka] seem really well but with the race moving to Eagle Farm it goes from 2000m to 2150m that could be a really good test for Ruach.

"I think Tutukaka will handle the distance but he is here, like most of these horses, to get ready for the Derby next start so while I think he can go a big race and get some of it he will definitely be better next start."

Dark Destroyer was so strong to the line when second in the Queensland Guineas last start he is a danger while Pinarello oozes x-factor and has the potential to emerge from this carnival a star.

But the drier the track is, both Saturday and for the Queensland Derby on May 28, the better it will suit him.

Pike says wide draws are likely to be too hard for his juveniles Slipper Island and Dimaggio Joe (race five) to overcome but both will be better next start.

On a card with such a strong New Zealand presence, the undoubted star flag-flyer is Entriviere but the Railway winner has a horror draw in the A$1 million Doomben 10,000. She needs something special or a wicked case of track bias to win, especially as she hasn't raced for three months.

Kiwis at Eagle Farm

R2: He's Got Power.

R4: El Vencedor.

R5: Slipper Island, Dimaggio Jo.

R6: Babylon Berlin, Letzbeglam, Iconic Star.

R7: Tutukaka, Dark Destroyer, Pinarello, Ruach.

R8: Entriviere.