By Ray Hickson
Trainer Richard Litt is happy to keep the bar low for his new addition Inoue for now but he’d like to think a first-up win for the stable is within reach at Canterbury on Wednesday.
Litt is no stranger to preparing horses for Greg Ingham’s GPI Racing and Inoue moved across town to him from Peter Snowden as connections were keen to place him in Midway company going forward and get his confidence up.
“He’s a lovely horse, he looked like he’d reached his mark a little bit with Peter and they moved him over to me because Peter isn’t eligible for the Midways,’’ Litt said.

Trainer Richard Litt (Pic: Bradley Photos).
“He fits in really nicely to that sort of Midway grade horse on a Saturday.
“I think he’s very capable and he can get out over a bit further so those Midways open it up for him.
“He came over in beautiful order, Pete looked after him really well. He’s had a nice spell and his trials have been very good.”
Inoue, $3.90 with TAB on Tuesday, won three of his 14 starts for Snowden, all at provincial level, and has pleased Litt leading into the Hyland Race Colours Handicap (1100m).
He’s booked Zac Lloyd to take the ride and the Warwick Farm trainer feels he’s found the right race to kick off the preparation.
But he qualifies that by saying he’s not completely screwed down first-up.
“He loves soft ground, the 1100m looks really suitable,’’ he said.
“He’s drawn well, the rail’s out, Zac Lloyd’s on and everything he touches seems to be running well. It looks like a good race for him so I’m excited to kick him off.
“Like all my horses he’ll improve again in the next few runs so whatever he does there will be huge improvement.”
Litt revealed his classy filly Caffe Florian won’t be seen again until 2027, if she races again, after sustaining a tendon injury in her last start fifth in the Arrowfield Sprint back in April.
Meanwhile, he’s looking forward to debuting two-year-old filly Wildfire at Newcastle on Saturday on the back of a recent trial win.
Mitchell Bell has been booked to ride her in the 900m maiden.
“She’s a very nice filly, she’s definitely a next preparation horse,’’ he said.
“At the moment she’s that 900m-1000m pacy filly but I hope she’s more than that.
“I think it’s a nice race for her, whether she has the strength to win I’m not sure but her trials have been excellent.”
All the fields, form and replays for Wednesday’s Canterbury meeting