As many would know I have a lot of time and respect for the Heathcote stable and love catching up with Rob or Mel whenever possible. The stable are flying and are coming off another winning double at Doomben last Saturday.
Melissa Leitch is Rob’s go to girl and she does a fantastic job to help the stable stay on top of the premiership. I had a chat with Mel today and wanted to not only touch base about the weekend, but to look forward to this weekend also.
We started with Excellantes who was dominant in going to the front and never being in danger. I told Mel it was a good steer that they were willing to put Browne on and carry the 60kg. “ He has had 5 wins from 6 rides on the horse. He rides him confidently. He will head to the Chief De Beers 1110m Doomben (Listed).”
The other winner of the day was Solzhenitsyn who was equally as impressive. Whiz kid James McDonald jumped him out 4th one off the fence and the race was over after 300m. Mel was as impressed as I was. “He is so confident, just cool, calm and collected.” I have had some e-mails asking if he was Stradbroke bound. At this stage the answer is no and the team will aim at a few 1600m races that look well within his reach, starting with the quick back-up this weekend in the Lord Mayor’s Cup (1600m). He will most likely have a couple of more runs after that and then look at the spring for a campaign down south. James McDonald will be in Scone this weekend and Michael Rodd will pick up the ride. Stablemate Fillydelphia will also run in the 1600m feature and she is cherry ripe leading into this. Her runs this time in work have again been solid and I’d expect her to go very close.
Buffering will have a week of working at the beach and hopefully head to the Doomben 10,000, while Leitch was wrapped with Woorim who made more ground than any runner in the BTC cup.. He is right on target for the Stradbroke on that run. With Damian Browne suspended I think we will see Michael Rodd take the 10,000 mount on Woorim.
As I stated a few weeks back heading into the carnival, this is the stable to follow. We all know they are the three time premiership winners, but Rob prides himself on our carnival and he wants to dominate it as he did last year. Even with the southern invaders heading up here, it won’t be the last time the stable have a winning double or treble over the carnival.
For more on Rob and Mel you can check out : http://www.robertheathcoteracing.com.au/
