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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Steve Tregea concedes Prioritise is a horse that doesn’t often have lady luck on his side.

While it’s hard to say conclusively that the five-year-old would have won at Randwick last Saturday, when seventh behind Intuition, most onlookers were of the view he’d have been thereabouts had he not been badly checked at the 200m.

So Tregea is hoping Prioritise can be on the receiving end of some good fortune as he backs up in the ClubsNSW Handicap (1350m) at Rosehill on Saturday.

“I’m pretty confident he would have been in the finish,’’ Tregea said.

“He was just starting to lengthen stride when he was stopped in his tracks but he’s a horse that does find a bit of trouble in his races.’’

Punters Intel illustrates just how well Prioritise was travelling when he was shut out of a run at a vital stage in the straight.

He ran the fastest sectional from the 800m-600m (10.69), equal fastest 600m-400m (10.97) and the quickest 400m-200m of 10.72. His last 200m was 11.91 but he went to the line untested.

Prioritise is unlucky running seventh at Randwick last Saturday

Tregea said both Prioritise and stablemate Bergerac, who also backs up in the St Johns Park Bowling Club Handicap (1500m), came through their runs last weekend well and have both backed up within a week before.

Prioritise, who has a win over Care To Think against his name and is an $11 chance with TAB, has drawn nicely but Tregea expects him the settle back in the field again on Saturday.

“He always takes 100m or so to get going but if he’s drawn on the inside he can make up the ground easily,’’ he said.

“But these days he seems to want to settle so maybe he is looking for a mile.

“He was only a length behind Bergerac two starts ago and had a three wide run so there’s not all that much between them. But Bergerac is a winner whereas the other horse needs luck.’’

Tregea indicated Bergerac doesn’t normally sit on the speed in his races but did so in winning at Randwick after jockey Michael Murphy decided to take bad luck out of the equation.

That’s something he may have to do again on Saturday but the trainer said he’ll leave that up to Murphy once again.

“If he’d have drawn an alley we’d have been keen to ride him a bit more quietly as he is usually done,’’ he said.

“Essentially Michael took the initiative, but I said there were three or four horses inside him with average speed. So I said you’ll have to go forward or go back but don’t sit out there.

“We’ll have to think about how he’s ridden, I’ll probably leave it up to the rider.’’

Bergerac was a $5.50 chance on Thursday with TAB to go back-to-back with Island Missile, who ran third behind him at Randwick, the $3.50 favourite.

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's meeting at Rosehill Gardens