Improving filly African Rainbow is ready to show her true colours when she lines up in the $500,000 Inglis Nursery (1000m) at Randwick on Saturday.
Brrenton Avdulla, above, rides African Rainbow in the Inglis Nursery at Randwick. Photo by Daniel Costello.
Trainer Bjorn Baker is expecting African Rainbow to perform a lot better than her first up fourth in a 900m two year old maiden at Kembla Grange on November 12.
Baker has added the blinkers and is also hoping the addition of a barrier blanket will help the Foxwedge filly step away cleanly after she made a complete mess of the start on debut.
“She did a lot wrong first-up,” Baker told racing.com.
“She missed the jump by a big margin but she’s shown ability and she’s trialled well since.
“The blinkers go on and the barrier blanket so if she does everything well, I think she’s better than a 50-1 shot.â
Brenton Avdulla takes the ride on African Rainbow who has a huge job ahead to overcome the outside barrier in the twelve horse Inglis Nursery field but Baker still thinks she is well over the odds at $61 with Ladbrokes.com.au.
African Rainbow was a $62,500 purchase from the 2016 Australian Easter Yearling Sales at Newmarket in Sydney and the Foxwedge filly showed a great deal of improvement for a second in a Rosehill 900m barrier trial on December 6.
The Gary Portelli trained She Will Reign has been installed the $1.95 favourite for the Inglis Nursery following her eight and a quarter lengths debut win in an 1000m Kembla Grange two year old maiden on December 10.
On the second line of betting at $4.60 is the Tony McEvoy trained Vinland who has a tongue tie and a set of winkers added to his race day gear since running fifth to Arctic Angel in the Listed $120,000 Thoroughbred Club Merson Cooper Stakes (1000m) at Sandown on November 12.
Ben Melham will be able to take full advantage of She Will Reignâs good gate speed from barrier two while Vinland will jump one from the outside with Hugh Bowman in the saddle.