Tony Gollan’s Pure Purrfection looks ideally placed at Doomben this afternoon to put a winter of frustration behind her in the AC Air Conditioning Class 4 Handicap (1030m).
Photo by Racing and Sports
The talented four-year-old mare hasn’t raced in two months now since running second in open fillies and mares grade at this track back in May. A spate of wet tracks has forced Gollan to scratch his daughter of General Nediym three times in the last month, most recently last week when she was poised to line up at Eagle Farm in a similar looking race.
She’s finally found a firmer surface this afternoon, albeit a Dead 5, and her class should prevail now she’s back in grade.
Pure Purrfection ran to a Timeform figure of 91 when beaten 1.3L by Funtantes at her last start at this track. She led most the trip but was just shaded late on by Robert Heathcote’s classy Group 2 winner.
Prior to that she was beaten a nose by Delago Bolt who went on to place twice behind Howmuchdoyouloveme over the winter – running second in the Lightning Handicap (1000m) last month and third in the Group 3 WJ Healy Stakes (1200m) two weeks later.
That form all reads superbly for Pure Purrfection who should be primed to fire after her forced let-up.
She’s won two of three starts fresh and has an excellent record over the five furlongs with four wins and two minor placings from eight starts at the journey.
She’s also only missed the top three once in six starts at this track.
Expect her to push to the front from out wide where she’ll be very hard to reel in.
Merryanna is an interesting one resuming.
She was a Listed placegetter as a two-year-old and clearly possesses class which is why she needs to be kept safe today.
Her problem is that she’ll likely find this lot a bit speedy. She only has the one win from four first-up starts, and has just one win from six at this trip.
She’s also never had a win at Doomben in eight starts.
Just bear in mind she is back in grade and deserves respect.
Next in line looks to be Fractions who narrowly won resuming in Class 3 grade at Eagle Farm over 1200m, running to a figure of 75.
He led from start to finish and drops back to five furlongs today which may well suit him.
Don’t be surprised if Fractions gives plenty of cheek.
