Latest News

By John Schell

Kembla Grange horseman Kerry Parker will embark on a Big Dance campaign with emerging prospect Flying Bandit when it returns from a brief break in Sunday’s $200,000 Goulburn Australia Goulburn Cup (1600m).

Parker has targeted the Big Dance eligibility event for the Trapeze Artist five-year-old gelding that has won six of 13 starts, with a further three placings, and amassed more than $333,000 in prizemoney.

Flying Bandit scored his biggest win in the Wagga Cup, with that event also carrying Big Dance eligibility.

Trainer Kerry Parker (Pic: Bradley Photos).

Flying Bandit has a rating well into the 90s, which should ensure he will be set to take his place in the Listed $3 million The Big Dance at Randwick on November 4.

“He is an untapped horse,” Parker said of Flying Bandit, which races in the colours of Jamie Walter’s Proven Thoroughbreds.

“He is a winner, as his record shows.

“He won the Wagga Cup impressively and then we took him to Brisbane for the Group 3 race (Queen Elziabeth II Cup) and he ran seventh there from a wide alley.

"That was his fifth run of the campaign, so we gave him a break after that and he’s fresh for Goulburn and in good order.”

Parker gave Flying Bandit a recent trial at Kembla Grange on August 8 with regular race rider Jay Ford being aboard in that hitout.

Ford will again be in the saddle when Flying Bandit lines up at Goulburn, with the galloper lining up against a handy field that includes the Chris Waller trained import Wootton Verni, which resumes from a spell with Kerrin McEvoy taking the ride.

Wootton Verni has only had two starts since joining the Waller stable from France.

He made his Australian debut with a midfield finish at Randwick before running fifth behind Know Thyself in The Coast at Gosford.

Waller has given Wootton Verni two trials leading into his resuming run, with the galloper being close-up in each of them.

The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained The Novelist is the market leader for the Goulburn Cup, with the Bjorn Baker prepared War Eternal contesting Saturday’s Winx Stakes at Randwick in preference to the Goulburn event.

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