Latest News

By Ray Hickson

Any suggestion that star mare Tempted doesn’t need to win Saturday’s Group 2 $1 million Precise Air Premiere Stakes (1200m) at Randwick is way off the mark.

Johann Gerard-Dubord (Pic: Bradley Photos).

That’s the view of Ciaron Maher’s assistant trainer Johann Gerard-Dubord who says the Premiere is a crucial lead up to the TAB Everest where she’ll face a rematch with Ka Ying Rising.

Of course Tempted ran second behind the Hong Kong star last year as a three-year-old and the Maher stable wants to see a statement from the Godolphin mare to be confident she can be some kind of threat to the champ.

“If you want to beat Ka Ying Rising in two weeks she needs to win and she needs to be dominant,’’ Gerard-Dubord said.

“We don’t need to win but it would be disappointing if she didn’t win.

“Confidence is a big thing with mares so the more you can win the more confidence they gain and going into a fight she will have in two weeks you want her at her top and full of confidence.”

It’s expected that Godolphin will confirm Tempted as their Everest runner, where she is $8 second favourite, sometime soon after the Premiere Stakes.

Tempted, $1.55 with TAB on Friday, hasn’t been beaten since last year’s Everest and she gave notice she’ll be our best local hope in the Everest with a brilliant first-up win in the Concorde Stakes a month ago.

Since that race she was given a deliberately easy trial and Gerard-Dubord said any rain that falls would be to her liking.

“She’s exactly where we want her,’’ he said.

“Everything has gone perfectly from day one. We want her peaking for Everest Day and we are right on track for that.

“Now she’s going up to 1200m, which is probably her best trip, with a run under her belt.

“She’s come on from the run but the exciting part last start was when once she went past them, she quickened very impressively, it was pretty much job done and there was quite a bit left late.”

Maher used a similar preparation for the TAB Everest – Concorde then Premiere - with his 2024 winner Bella Nipotina and Jimmysstar who ran third last year.

Where Tempted finds herself from barrier 11 will be left up to Chad Schofield but on the whole Gerard-Dubord sees it as more a positive than a negative.

“You can ride her anywhere in a race and she will switch off,’’ he said.

“So it will give her a chance to get out and quicken whenever she wants, she could be in the three wide line and not stuck behind horses and dictated to. It could turn out to be a positive gate.

“She’ll have a good hitout and she’ll be spot on. She’s 100 per cent this week and she’ll be 110 per cent in two weeks.”

Among Maher’s runners at Randwick, Gerard-Dubord is looking forward to seeing if Navy Pilot can back up his first-up effort in the TAB One Pool Handicap (1200m).

The four-year-old ran into third in an on pace dominated race at Rosehill three weeks ago behind Theblade, who is a rival again, and if there’s sting out of the track he said it’d be no negative.

Tempted wins the Concorde Stakes

“He was very good first-up and ran very good sectionals,’’ he said.

“He’s an unassuming kind of horse, he’s straightforward and a very neat looking horse and always looks well and tries very hard.

“The track was very on speed and the first two home were the first two in the run and he was the only horse to make ground so I thought he did a very good job.”

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