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A white-hot Jason Holder and the heavily backed Another Award are searching for a third hometown victory in 20 years in Saturday’s $502,250 Group 1 Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville.
Tony and Calvin McEvoy's pair of Despatch and Savatoxl are the only two horses two fend off the interstate raiders in the past two decades and the Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas-trained Another Award has been well backed from $15 into $8 with tab.com.au.
Jason Holder, 47 is riding the crest of a wave, with five winners at Morphettville on Derby Day before following that up with a quartet of victories at Gawler on Wednesday.
"When you're in-form you tend to trust your instincts a lot more and in turn that sees you keep riding well,'' Holder said.
"It's a lot like a footballer who gets an early goal or touch, they just keep getting the ball and it flows from there,'' he said.
Holder has been on a two week mission to drop the required weight to partner Sangster runner-up Another Award at 53kg, a half a kilogram over her allotted 52.5kg, in Saturday's feature.
He said having the two weeks to shed the weight coupled with the help of his personal trainer has made the process a lot easier.
"It's been a steady process,'' Holder said.
"Knowing I had a couple of weeks, we've been able to do it gradually which makes losing the weight much easier,'' he said.
Another Award shares on the third line of betting with Kallos, behind Victorian colt Lofty Strike who remains a firm $3 favourite and the James Cummings-trained Zapateo ($5.50).
Lofty Strike's trainer Julius Sandhu said the Goodwood was a logical target for the horse after he finished down the track behind I Wish I Win and Giga Kick in the T J Smith.
"It worked out well,'' Sandhu said.
"That run in the TJ Smith, on that surface with the travel and his first run running the other way around. There were a number of things that didn't go our way. The least of which the Heavy 10 surface on the day and the pattern of racing.
"We got him back from Sydney, the next week was all about assessing him. We had an opportunity to give him a few days and then we started a meticulous program of trying to get him in the best shape we could with this race in mind,'' he said.
And he said the horse was in ideal order as he chases a maiden Group 1 win which would see Lofty Strike become hot property for studs across Australia being by Snitzel out of Golden Slipper winner Overreach.
"As every week passed, he was giving me every indication he was well and truly on the way to get to this race in the way I needed him too, the last of which was the jump out on Monday,'' Sandhu said.
