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Daily Preview; Best Bet Gosford - August 11

3 minute read

The promising Sugar Bay Leonard can continue his progression through the grades at Gosford on Thursday.

The son of Encosta De Lago resumed at this course over 1100m where he was prominent throughout and came away with a length victory.

It was an encouraging display which returned a Timeform rating of 79 for the Joe Pride-trained runner.

The effort sits six pounds below a master Timeform rating achieved during his maiden preparation which highlight the potential room for improvement Sugar Bay Leonard has second up in the Hume Doors and Timber Class 2 Handicap (1200m).

From an outside barrier, jockey Kerrin McEvoy is expected to work across and have the four-year-old settled prominent.

He is expected to take some holding out from that position although the Kris Lees-trained Clevedon Bay is expected to be closing strongly behind him.

The mare resumes after a winning debut here over 1100m.

It was a head turning one at that where she settled worse than midfield before proving a cut above in the straight.

She looked a well above average type who can hit the ground running here off a pair of trials.

Embley drops in grade and distance off a well beaten fifth at Eagle Farm last start.

The gelding while underwhelming last start is capable of better as evidenced by the solid displays he produced at Rosehill prior to a Brisbane road trip.

A sharp drop back in trip though is a query considering he is a son of High Chaparral.

Choice We Had is an intriguing runner first up off a generous spell.

The son of Choisir is lightly-raced however has shown promise through limited opportunity.

Connections bit the bullet in his latest spell and elected to geld the five-year-old.

Choice We Had will likely be in dire need of this outing however a market watch is strongly advised consider he boasts the respected jockey/trainer combination of Blake Shinn and Team Snowden.

While only a small field after scratchings, the Hume Doors and Timber Class 2 Handicap (1200m) still boasts a useful field.

It’s Sugar Bay Leonard who shapes as the pick of them though based on the strength of his first up victory here a fortnight ago.