A promising effort first up leaves Paul Jones confident Delabombell can continue her solid record second up when she lines up in the Bradford Solar Handicap at Rosehill Gardens tomorrow.
Photo by Racing and Sports
Despite going down as the well supported favourite in the Queanbeyan Thunderbolt last start, Jones said Delabombell should not be dismissed on that effort as he admitted he did not have her wound right up for that first up effort.
"I knew she had gone into that race a bit underdone so I didn't want her to lead as I was hoping to take a sit on something," Jones said.
"It's funny though, because sometimes barrier one can actually work against you, you've got to push up to maintain your position in the field but once she got a kick in the ribs she just took off and raced too close to the pace for my liking.
"I thought she did really well to stick it out because I think she ran out of puff at about the 200m mark."
Stepping up sharply in grade, Jones has elected to engage in-form apprentice Kayla Nisbet in a bid to gain some such much needed weight relief."It's a strong field on Saturday so we've elected to go with Kayla [Nisbet] so we can take a bit of weight of her back," Jones said.
"Without the claim I thought she was pretty badly weighted given she only got two kilograms off horses like Stratana and Welkom Gold, she'll get in with only 51kg on her back and if she's ridden how I would like to see her ridden I think she'll be working home very strongly.
"She's has to be on her game and up to her best to be competitive on Saturday, but in saying that I've got her up near her best as well."
Boasting a very impressive record third up having remained unbeaten in four attempts, Jones said he is likely to drop Delabombell back to fillies and mares company next start.
"I'd say she'll probably come back to a fillies and mares race next start, the 1100m seems to be her pet distance so we'll look to keep her at that trip next start," Jones said.
"All the races that she has won in town have been against her own sex, I always find they do seem to struggle a bit when they line up against the colts and geldings."
Having proven quite competitive towards the back end of her last campaign in Melbourne, Jones said he hasn't ruled out the option of heading down south in the future.
"If the right race comes up towards the end of the Melbourne Cup carnival then I'm sure they owners would be very interested in a repeat visit," Jones said.
