Recent Country Championship Final-participating trainer Robert Agnew will be making regular trips from Port Macquarie to Sydney this winter with his three-year-old stable pillars Pony Soprano and Show ‘Em Howl.
Agnew will head north on Monday with another of the barn’s three-year-old brigade, Bondi Prophet, scheduled to resume at Grafton in the Hip Pocket Workwear Benchmark 58 Handicap (1030m).
Bondi Prophet, a $30,000 Agnew Racing purchase at the 2023 HTBA Yearling Sale, has banked $31,575 in his eight starts so far.
The only real blemish on his record came at his most recent appearance on January 11 when beating one other to the line at Coffs Harbour.
“All his runs are good, he was just at the end of his prep last time,’’ Agnew said.
“He was flat. We just went to the well one too many times with him.
“He had a good racing prep which matured him. I used to take him to the races and he would just sweat and annoy you and do everything wrong but the by the end of that prep, he would stand in the stalls good and you wouldn’t have to hose him in summer and all that immaturity has gone out of him now.
“The good, tough, hard prep that he had has really made a horse out of him and he’s working very sharp.”
Bondi Prophet has it bred into him to be every bit as tough as Agnew attests.
The gelding’s third dam is Tempest Morn who famously contested the AJC Oaks, SAJC Australasian Oaks, SA Oaks, Queensland Oaks and Queensland Derby in consecutive starts.
For the record, the Gooree-owned filly won the Australasian Oaks and was runner-up in each of the other classics.
Agnew meanwhile will use Monday’s opener at Grafton to take the wrapping off his intriguing two-year-old first starter Dirty Does It which leads the field out in the Prestige Wedding 2YO Handicap (1030m).
While the gelding is bred to win a Derby not a Slipper, he has shown enough natural talent at home and in his trial to suggest at least some kind of positive showing, albeit at a distance way short of his future best.
“Dirty Does It is a work in progress and is going to be a much better three-year-old,’’ Agnew said.
“But he’s done a good job to get to where he is. He got broken-in off a racetrack and the first time he saw a racetrack was when he came up here to get pre-trained. Then he came straight to my barn and he’s got through to a trial and race (on Monday) all in his first real preparation.
“He is only going to get better in the future.
“His sire, Endless Drama, ran third behind Winx and Hartnell in the Apollo Stakes so he was very handy.
“Dirty Do It is definitely a nice horse. He can gallop.
“He might be a little too ‘new’ and all the rest of it but I think he’ll get through the wet.
“He’s just got to do everything right and he’ll go for a spell straight after this and he’ll come back a really nice horse.”
Not only is Dirty Does It a grandson of the French Derby winner Lope De Vega, his classic credentials are underlined by the fact that his grand-dam is a sister to the internationally acclaimed racehorse and sire, High Chaparral.
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