Dan Clarken and Oopy MacGillivray are looking at the Adelaide Guineas on Adelaide Cup Day with lightly-raced three-year-old Dunmaghlas.
Bred by Clarken, who trained his mother Metrofox to win six of 20 starts, Clarken said despite showing ability over the shorter distances the horse is bred to get out to the mile.
“He’ll have a run on the Parks, which is Racing Rewards again, and the pedigree suggests he should get a mile,’’ Clarken said.
“His half-brother Metro Cowboy ran second in the Port Adelaide Guineas, going by that, and the fact he’s by Highland Reel we were hoping we have a quick middle distance horse.
“We won’t know until we try him at a mile in the Guineas and then we’ll assess him from there,’’ he said.
Dunmaghlas was the Racing Rewards SA Highest Earning Horse for the month of January banking $26,800 in bonuses to go with his $61,475 in prizemoney earnt in the opening month of 2023.
He won his maiden at Strathalbyn over 1200m before dropping back in trip at Morphettville on the Parks a over 1050m and winning smartly on January 28.
“It’s always hard for a horse to win their maiden and then go on and win their next start,’’ Clarken said.
“It’s even harder to win at 1200m and then come back to 1050m and he did both.
“I said to Oopy if you can do that, you’ve got a fairly reasonable horse on our hands,’’ he said.
SA racing’s newest partnership Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea hit the ground running as the Highest Earning Trainer(s) with $2,210 in bonuses, Summerset Park/R & M McBryde were the Highest Earning Nominator with $11,400 while the Leading Sire was Zebedee with $29,400 in bonuses.
