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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Joe Pride and connections of Coal Crusher would be more than happy if a race like The Hunter was staged every few weeks.

Trainer Joe Pride (Pic: Bradley Photos).

It’s a race Pride says is tailor made for the eight-year-old who isn’t quite Group 1 class but is still racing at a high standard.

Coal Crusher heads a quartet from the Warwick Farm trainer’s stable and will be having his third attempt at the Group 2 $1 million Newcastle Herald Hunter (1300m) on Saturday.

It’ll be his fourth consecutive year at the meeting. He won the Benchmark 88 back in 2022, ran a record time to win The Hunter in 2023 and finished third behind Briasa last year.

“I guess it’s just that level below the very best sprinters which clearly at this stage of his life he is,’’ Pride said.

“He loves the track which helps him. Right from the start when I first took him to Newcastle he ran well so it’s a combination of those things. The timing is spot on for him.”

Pride is adamant Coal Crusher, $4.40 with TAB on Thursday, is currently racing on par with 2023 and that tells him the gelding must be a strong chance of becoming The Hunter’s first dual winner.

Just as he did two years ago, the horse's lead up resulted in a fourth in the Russell Balding Stakes. This time he endured a wide run on the speed and Pride was rapt with his effort to hold that spot behind Jimmysstar.

“I thought it was every bit as good as the year he won it,’’ he said.

“Last year was a disaster, he got caught in a speed dual with I Am Me in that race (Balding) and it took the stuffing out of him.

“He couldn’t lead last year and he still ran great to run third but he wasn’t going as well.”

If Coal Crusher is the leading light from the Pride stable he’s brought three worthy sidekicks in the shape of Estadio Mestalla, Accredited and Golden Mile.

The latter is the only Group 1 winner in the field.

It’s often an eye-opening gear change when Pride throws the blinkers on a gelding and that’s what he’s done with Golden Mile in an effort to find some form.

To be fair the Godolphin gelding has only raced twice for him but he hasn’t shown anything like the form that took him to a Group 1 placing just five months ago.

“I’ve only had him for two runs so I think I’ll get my answer on Saturday as to whether I’m going to get him going or not,’’ he said.

“It’s always a question with older horses, whether they are going to respond to a new training regime and everything else. Plenty of them do but that question is yet to be answered.”

Accredited has worked his way through the grades and arrives at his toughest test with a narrow defeat at the hands of stablemate Estadio Mestalla.

The six-year-old is most effective on good ground and Pride expects he’ll take improvement from the first-up run and it’s now up to the horse to show he can compete at a higher level.

“I thought he ran quite well, I was happy with him,’’ he said.

“He’s just got to come up a level on what he’s done before. He’s turned up and run well in Listed and Group 3 level and this is another step up again.

“He’s probably got to find a length or two on what he’s done so far. But he’s in a good position to do that.”

Coal Crusher runs fourth in the Russell Balding

As for Estadio Mestalla, the barrier gods will see him jump from the outside barrier in The Hunter. It didn’t stop him, even with 63kg, when he won first-up at Randwick over what looked an unsuitable 1100m.

Pride plans to send him to Kembla Grange for next week’s $1 million Illawarra Mercury Gong (1600m) and just wants him to hit the line with the same gusto as he did fresh.

“He is much better on the back up and he will need the run to get him up to the mile,’’ he said.

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s meeting at Newcastle