Morphettville trainer Travis Doudle heads to Flemington with talented grey Struck By trying to build on an already impressive first-up record.
Struck By won smartly when resuming at Morphettville in October before running third behind Love Tap in the greys race at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day and Doudle said the horse returns to Melbourne in good order.
“He’s nice and fresh,’’ Doudle said.
“We know that’s when he races at his best so we go over while he’s ready to kick the barn door down,’’ he said.
Struck By has won seven of 20 starts and Doudle said they’d be guided by his first-up performance as to where he heads this time around.
“We will just see how he performs on Saturday, but I am thinking I’ll space his runs and keep him nice and fresh,’’ Doudle said.
“There is another race there for him in three weeks, but I might even space him a month between runs,’’ he said.
Doudle has booked Mark Zahra from a good gate with the horse marked an $11 chance behind the Mike Moroney-trained Jungle Jim who is a $3.70 favourite with tab.com.au.
“They’ll know he’s there at the 200m mark, that’s for sure,’’ Doudle said.
