Mark Minervini will monitor the weather and track conditions before deciding if new stable recruit Hosier will take his place in the Listed Civic Stakes at Randwick.
The former Lloyd Williams-owned gelding needs rain-affected ground to be at his best and Minervini says the showers forecast for the back end of the week must arrive if Hosier is to run.
“We bought him on the edge of the winter thinking we’re going to get some wet tracks, and they will come surely, but right now it’s a bit dry,” Minervini said.
“But if the rain comes and it gets into the soft range, he will definitely run.”
Hosier has raced 11 times in Australia for seven wins, all of them on soft or heavy tracks.
Sent to Newcastle trainer Kris Lees last winter in search of wet ground, he struck his favoured conditions to score convincing victories at his first two runs for the yard, before jarring up on a firm surface in the Big Dance.
Minervini also trains out of Newcastle and had taken an interest in Hosier, so when Williams recently put the horse up for sale, he joined with a group of stable clients to snap hm up for $100,000.
“We thought at that money he was good value,” Minervini said.
“When he came up here, he won the Coffs Harbour Cup straight away and he’s always had a bit of presence about him, so I did know the horse quite well.
“We’re hoping to have another couple of years with him and for our $100,000, we only need to win a metropolitan race or two, or maybe a country Cup and qualify him for the Big Dance.”
The six-year-old is lightly raced with just 13 career starts, but Minervini says he is sound and healthy, if not a little lazy in his work.
That trait makes it difficult for his trainer to get a line on him ahead of Saturday’s Civic Stakes (1400m), but Minervini says fitness won’t be an issue.
“He is a lovely sound horse. His form tells you that he’s a typical European horse, he doesn’t perform on those firm tracks, he just needs a bit of cut in the ground and his form is exceptional,” he said.
Minervini will also start Smiling Prophet in the Midway Handicap (1100m), the mare flashing home from last to just miss at Gosford two starts ago and again warming up late for fifth last time out.
She will have to overcome the outside gate in 13, but Minervini can see her featuring with luck.
“It’s only one turn so we will ride her patiently, get her to the outside and hopefully she can finish hard and be in the money,” he said.