Marine Girl ready to bounce back after drop in class

Connections of a promising Canberra mare are banking on a quick drop in class to get their charge back to winning ways at Monday’s Nowra meeting.

Marine Girl, still a lightly raced four-year-old daughter of Headwater in the Nick Olive stable, easily won two straight in the country at Benchmark 58 level before a big step-up in class backfired.

Racing returns to Nowra on Monday.Credit: Getty

The mare tackled a deep Class 3 Highway at Randwick 16 days ago and was beaten a long way at big odds after settling near the rear.

That said, the form from the race has already proved very strong, with fourth-placed Sir Franklin then bolting in a CL3 BM 66 at Goulburn next start.

The team naturally wasted no time in setting Marine Girl for a much more moderate BM 58 Hcp over 1100m at Nowra, drawing the inside barrier.

She opened around $3.60 favorite in early betting ahead of Goulburn four-year-old and big danger La Mer Bleue ($4) who is already a winner at this course, with both Abstruse and Drama Dodger on the $5 line.

And it might just be the start of another big week for Canberra racing.

Eight days after a successful Black Opal Stakes meeting which yielded Canberra its first Group 1 Golden Slipper-bound runner in many years, victory on the South Coast would be a nice appetiser for turf fans in the countdown to the world’s richest two-year-old race at Rosehill this Saturday.

Popular local two-year-old Music Time is a $34 shot across All-In markets after a stirring and dominant win in the Group 3 Black Opal (1200m) last Sunday.

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Originally not nominated, trainer Gratz “Twinkle Toes” Vella and connections gave him the nod after the gelding pulled up in terrific order.

A big supporters’ bus to Rosehill and even his own fan zone have been organised ahead of Music Time’s likely Slipper start, and a crack at 27-year-long history.

A Canberra horse hasn’t won the Black Opal and Golden Slipper Stakes double since Catbird in 1999.

Supplied by Racing NSW
Full form and race replays available at racingnsw.com.au

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