SCONE trainer Luke Griffith believes he’s in with more than just an outside chance when stable star With A Chance lines up for its second crack at the $110,000 Emirates Park Scone Cup (1600m) tomorrow.
With A Chance, a multiple city winner and crowned Hunter and North-West Horse of the Year in 2006, went around in last year’s cup a 6/1 chance but battled into eighth spot behind Guy Walter’s Spy Zaim.
“He drew a bad gate (13) last year and had a bad preparation,” Griffith said.
“He got a foot abscess and we got it right, but it kept on flaring up. It was one of those things that just took a while to come right.
“We were behind the eight-ball but this preparation he’s had a couple of nice runs. He’s rock-hard fit and seems okay within himself – everything is pretty well right with him,” he said.
With A Chance was bought as a young horse for just $3500 by a group of Scone drinking buddies headed up by hotelier Ian Campbell, and won a string of city races during the 2005-06 season, including the Listed Winter Stakes at Rosehill Gardens.
“He’s coming into form at the moment and I’m not saying he’s going as good as he was back then, but his last run was probably his best run this preparation.
Two runs back With A Chance finished a close-up fifth in the Tamworth Gold Cup before a luckless nose second in the 1600m Gunnedah Cup.
“It wasn’t a bad run at Gunnedah and he just got held up at the point of the turn,” Griffith said.
“He had a nice run from barrier two but had he got out that little bit earlier he could’ve got his momentum up.
“But that’s the way racing goes; you’ve got to take the good with the bad,” he said.
Griffith said home track advantage on the spacious Scone circuit was a big plus.
“He’s run a couple of good races at Scone and it’s a nice, big track,” Griffith said.
“The best thing about Scone is that the track won’t be hard. It will have a bit of give in it and that suits these older horses that are having little dramas with their legs.
“As he’s got older, he’s feeling the harder tracks a bit more,” he said.
Griffith concedes tomorrow’s cup will be no walk in the park, but says a damp track will bring With A Chance right into calculations.
“A little bit of rain will lift his hopes – the wetter the better with him, plus no weight on his back will suit him too.”