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By Ray Hickson

Newcastle trainer Scott Aspery doesn’t have runners in $1 million races very often so he gave plenty of thought to running Uzziah in Saturday’s feature before settling on an easier option on Saturday.

Trainer Scott Aspery (Pic: Bradley Photos).

The six-year-old, a $5000 purchase, has been a super horse for Aspery, earning over $350,000 to date, and he’ll chase his seventh win in the Ausure Insurance Newcastle Handicap (1300m).

Aspery dual accepted in the Newcastle Herald Hunter but simply couldn’t see a way Uzziah could win with the race’s make up so didn’t want to tackle the Group 2 for the sake of it.

“It’s a million dollar race on your home track so you’ve got to see what your options are,’’ he said.

“The strength of the field and barrier draw, and the early speed in the race, led me to the other race.

“I think he’s a great chance, from a favourable barrier and with 52kg after the claim he should give a good sight.”

Uzziah, $6,50 with TAB on Thursday, kicked off his spring in early September with an all the way win at Randwick over 1200m with Molly Bourke in the saddle but didn’t reappear until two months later.

Aspery said he had to reset the gelding’s preparation when he fell ill about a week after his first-up run.

He resurfaced at Rosehill two weeks ago and ran third over 1100m behind Tristate and that told Aspery he was back on track and could go forward with confidence.

“He got a chest infection and had to be treated with antibiotics so he had nine days of doing nothing at all,’’ he said.

“We had to go back to scratch and start again, had that not happened he’d probably be more looking at a race like the Gong.

“We went back to 1100m to give him that run and make sure health wise he was 100 per cent and he ticked that box.

"Now we’re stepping up to a more suitable distance.”

Bourke is reunited with Uzziah at Newcastle and Aspery, who does excavation work around Newcastle as a day job and has three horses in work, said he likes how the race appears to work out on paper.

“We’ll be positive from the gate, barrier four is perfect, Molly has a good connection with the horse,’’ he said.

“If we don’t lead we’ll be right there. It’s a distance and a race where he can hopefully be right there on the bunny and if he can control the race without any pressure then great but if not Molly knows what to do.

Uzziah runs third at Rosehill on November 2

“He’s always a horse that gets under the radar, he normally goes around at healthy odds. I’m biased but I think he gets posted well over his correct odds.

“He’s a very capable horse on his day and he’s showed that through his career.”

If Uzziah runs up to Aspery’s hopes he said a race like the Group 3 Festival Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on November 30 could be a good next step, if he posts an impressive win he may throw in a nomination for the Illawarra Mercury Gong and consider backing up.

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