Trainer Justin Pateman is confident Showy Chloe can overcame a distance query and the threat of inclement weather when she steps up to 2000m for the first time in the Listed Belmont Oaks on Saturday.
“We will find out on Saturday I guess, but I don’t have any queries really and I think there are just as many question marks over the others who haven’t been over a journey,” Pateman said on TABradio.
“She is big enough and strong enough and I think she will get it personally.”
With heavy showers predicted for Perth on Friday and Saturday, Showy Chloe is certain to be running the Belmont Oaks on a rain-affected track, but Pateman is not concerned.
The talented daughter of Alfred Nobel has proved adaptable in the wet, posting one win and three minor placings from her four outings on soft going.
She won the Sires Produces Stakes (1400m) and ran second in the Listed Burgess Queen Stakes (1400m), Raconteur Stakes (1500m) and last fortnight’s Belmont Guineas (1600m) behind boom gelding, Great Shot.
“I always work her in the heavy sand and she ploughs through that pretty strongly,” Pateman said.
“The wettest track she had was the Sires and we saw what she did that day so I don’t think the wet will be a problem.”
Showy Chloe has drawn favourably in barrier three. Pateman said he would instruct jockey nephew, Mitchell Pateman, to take full advantage of her perfect gate.
“With the way the weather is you don’t want to be back amongst it because some horses struggle in the wet,” Pateman said.
“What happens is you can get to about the 800m and some of them start going up and down on the one spot.
“If you are in behind them you could get into a bit of strife so I would be saying we would go forward with her.”
Red-hot trainer, Steve Wolfe, rates Showy Chloe as the class filly in the Belmont Oaks, but is confident his charge, Hey Listen, will be more than competitive.
The Demerit filly pressed her claims with an emphatic last-start victory at Belmont on June 29, dashing clear to defeat her next rival, Checkers by 2 ½ lengths.
“It’s a very even field, but I’m sure she will race well,” Wolfe said on TABradio.
“She is a genuine racehorse and I’m sure she will run the 2000m out.
“The best part of her is she has a good turn of foot and quickens up quite sharply.
“That may set her aside from a couple of them.”
RWWA: Julio Santarelli