Quick Tempo (Jason Collett, black ca) trained by Mark Minervini wins at Kembla Grange on November 19 2022 – photo by Martin King/Sportpix copyright
Quick Tempo has been an excellent money spinner for the Mark Minervini stable with seven wins and over $400,000 in prize money and the Newcastle based trainer is hoping the gelding can win his first listed race in Saturday’s Bob Charley AO Stakes (1100m).
The five-year-old put in the best performance of the preparation last start when second to Opal Ridge in the Listed Ortensia Stakes (1100m) at Scone and Minervini believes the predicted rain in Sydney this week will play into his hands.
“We deliberately held him back waiting for the wetter tracks, he’s got good form on heavy tracks… he seems to excel on the softer tracks and hopefully it’s still wet on Saturday, that’ll work in his favour for sure,” Minervini said.
A Group 3 and feature sprint placegetter, Minervini also believes a good draw is crucial to the horse, who has the speed to sit in behind the leaders if afforded the opportunity.
“A few times he’s run really well but from wide gates it’s just made the job pretty much impossible but if he can draw a barrier and just be up behind the speed he’ll be right in the finish I think.”
The last time Quick Tempo raced at Randwick he was victorious over 1000m at benchmark 84 level, with the then Joseph Pride trained Dehorned Unicorn under a length away in third, with the Minervini stable recent acquiring that horse.
Dehorned Unicorn will make his stable debut for Minervini in a benchmark 78 over 1000m having also beaten Quick Tempo in December 2022 at Randwick, something Minervini noted when purchasing the gelding for $65,000 in February.
“That’s one reason we bought him because it knocked us off one day at Randwick and quite admired the horse. Joe had a good opinion of him and I’ve had two or three conversations with him about him and they were happy to keep him but the syndicate decided to move him on,” Minervini said.
“He’s been with us since early March and he’s done really well, both Joe and Sam Clipperton both probably thought he needed a change of scenery so hopefully being out of the city, he’s worked well and trialled well. He’ll go to the races and be competitive on his trackwork for sure.”
Clipperton will continue his association with Dehorned Unicorn on Saturday while Alysha Collett will ride Quick Tempo.