Republican Party’s lead-in to his Australian debut should have been chaos, but instead it has been smooth sailing for the Kentuckiana Lodge four-year-old.
The Cran and Chrissie Dalgety trained pacer was in Auckland during the huge recent downpour that caused widespread flooding across the city, as he prepared to fly to Sydney.
The rough weather meant Republican Party missed a workout before stepping on the plane.
While that doesn’t sound ideal, what actually transpired turned out to be perfect.
“We missed the trial, but we were able to take him around to Stonewall and give him a nice strong hit-out with a couple of their nice ones, Cran said.
“As it worked out, we got a better workout into him than if we had’ve gone to the actual trials.”
“So we were rapt and very grateful to Steve Telfer and his team.”
Republican Party has arrived safely in Australia and has trained well ahead of his Australian debut in the Group Three Hondo Gratton Stakes on Saturday night.
“He is forward and we expect him to run well.”
“He is a very sensible horse and his top three inches have been one of his strongest attributes.”
“So he has settled in like he has been living there his whole life.”
“The Chariots Of Fire is the main aim and he is going to take benefit from this run, but his fitness is certainly where we want it to be.”
“It looks a handy field but we have a quality horse and we expect him to race very well.”
“If there was a tiny concern it is that we have found that Menangle is a track that horses can take a run to get used to.”
“But in saying that we have brought over a very adaptable little horse.”
“All in all we are more than happy to be over there getting in amongst and we certainly wouldn’t want to swap him for anything else.”
Carter Dalgety takes the reins behind Republican Party with Blair Orange in Melbourne to drive Copy That on Saturday night.
“Carter knows the horse well having won with him at Addington and of course he’s driven him in work at lot.”
“It is exciting for him to get the drive this week.”
“Blair will be back on board next time, so Carter is hoping to make the most of his opportunity.”
Carter will be looking to build on his great record in Australia, having won five of his nine drives across the ditch.
