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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Fleur Henley has had her honest mare Prancing With Fire eyeing Sunday’s Maclean Bowling Club Maclean Cup (1400m) at Grafton for some time.

Given wet conditions in the Northern Rivers area of late you can understand that she’s hoping for the weather to do the right thing by the horse who prefers not to get her toes too deep into the ground.

The six-year-old showed Henley she was on target with a close up sixth in the John Carlton Cup last Sunday beaten under two lengths by My Mum’s Toyboy.

“This has been something we’ve planned for and targeted and fingers crossed it ends up at the better end of the soft range and she can have her chance of winning,’’ Henley said.

Fleur Henley with Prancing With Fire and Ben Looker after the Casino Cup win (Pic: Trackside).

“She’s going well at home, I do think she’s right in it. I’m hoping the rain doesn’t wash us out in any way.

“I thought that race was a good stepping stone into it and she races really well fresh. She did very well, if she drew a gate she would have been right there.”

Ramornie Handicap winning jockey Dylan Turner rides Prancing With Fire on Sunday and Henley said she sees the race as equivalent to a Benchmark 82 in the area, which she feels is well within reach.

She was narrowly beaten at Grafton in that grade three runs ago and at her best she ran a record time in winning last spring’s Casino Cup.

Henley said that’s an illustration of what she can do when she gets conditions to suit.

“When you look deep into her form the only time her form hasn’t stood up was when we had all that rain last year,’’ she said.

“We weren’t getting the work into them at all and everywhere you went you were on wet tracks.

“Her spring and summer form is a thousand times better when she’s on the better surfaces and we don’t have those interruptions.

“Hopefully we can get a reasonably good track and she will certainly be in the finish.”

Checks’n’balances is a new horse to the Henley yard and if her husband Scott is right it won’t take the former Archibald gelding too long to break through.

The three-year-old has been unplaced in four starts and goes into the Andrew Tom Builder Pty Ltd Plate (1100m) with a gap of two months since his last run.

“He’s a nice horse who has had a few problems,’’ she said.

“I think we’ve ironed out enough of them to be able to win a race. My husband does his work and he galloped him the other day and on his work he said he’d surely win a maiden.

“Whether it’s too short for him I'm not sure, he might be looking for 1300m or 1400m, but I think he’ll give a forward showing and race very well.”

Fleur Henley on Saskatoon Berry (race 4): “She just needs a little bit of give in the ground and she likes tempo on. If she gets it then she generally runs a good race from the back. Her last run was awesome and the whole reason I decided to keep her. She had a setback over the summer but she goes out there and tries her best and that’s all we ask.”

All the fields, form and replays for Sunday’s Grafton meeting