Murt The Flirt Pressing On To Gold Coast
- Friday, 19 December 2014 07:09
Melbourne trainer Brendan McCarthy is pressing on with Magic Millions Guineas plans for Murt The Flirt, convinced the gelding is a genuine contender in the $1 million race.
Murt The Flirt finished fifth in Thursday's $100,000 Wyong Magic Millions 3YO Stakes (1200m) in his first interstate assignment.
McCarthy expects the son of Murtajill to benefit from the experience racing clockwise for the first time at his second race start.
The trainer is convinced greenness cost the lightly raced galloper, who was beaten less than two lengths, from finishing closer to the winner Aerobar.
Murt The Flirt is set to wear blinkers for the Gold Coast race on January 10, which McCarthy believes will help.
"The more I looked at the Wyong race, the happier I was with it," McCarthy said.
"He still has quite a bit of greenness there and we've still got the fact that he probably goes better with the blinkers on and we've got that up our sleeve, so I think we're probably going to go into this race pretty right.
"If he didn't have that bit of greenness yesterday I think he would have still finished a lot closer than he did."
Murt The Flirt won the $100,000 Magic Millions 3YO Classic (1100m) at Ballarat on debut last month before venturing north.
Brenton Avdulla will retain the ride.
Murt The Flirt will stay in Sydney for the next couple of weeks to continue his preparations.
