Bulls eye on Talented Tony K

LAST year's Lotto Sprint winner, TALENTED TONY K, gets a massive pull in the scale for Saturday's 1100-metre overnight allowance, reporting with 111lb, after carrying 126lb as recent as two months ago when he led the Easter Sprint to the furlong pole.

Having raced only once since, finishing down the track at 1000 metres straight, breaking from post-position one in the GA 'Sarge' Bucknor Memorial won by out-of-class MR UNIVERSE, TALENTED TONY K could have been gifted Saturday's race at the weights.

However, Patrick Lynch's speedster is also getting on in age at seven and, as light as he will be on Saturday, could be ripe for an upset in a field of mainly sprinters, who definitely do not possess his raw speed but can be bothersome enough to make the pace collapse.

Lynch has signalled that he means business by making two equipment changes, adding a figure eight and tongue tie, not to mention him exacting every pound by summoning featherweight rider Prince Holder, possibly the shortest jockey in the world.

Still, all things considered, TALENTED TONY K, even on an off-day, should have done better than finishing next-to-last, beaten 10 lengths behind MR UNIVERSE on last, suggesting he could, at seven, be suspect inside the last half-furlong.

RIDICULOUS CONDITIONS

Though ridiculous conditions of the event has LITTLE BIG HORN sharing topweight 121lb with POKER STAR, who TALENTED TONY K beat in back-to-back races this time last year, PAPA ALBERT, who had chased Lynch's runner in the Easter Sprint, will run with 104lb.

If TALENTED TONY K has really regressed and fails to take advantage of the helluva weight pull, the run-on sprinters will be charging hard at the end.

POKER STAR, a Sprint champion at three, has tremendous back class and worked pretty good at exercise on Sunday, clocking 1:07.4 for a five-and-a-half furlong spin, the last five in 1:01.3. He was only four lengths off stablemate MR UNIVERSE in the Sarge Bucknor at five furlongs straight, six lengths ahead of TALENTED TONY K.

The other run-on horses to consider are Gary Subratie's filly, SARAH LEE, Errol Waugh's DANCING QUEEN and Richard Azan's back-to-form four-year-old colt, CAPTUREMYSHIP, who has actually skipped a class, not bothering to await a non-winners-of-four, to make his overnight allowance debut.

Though he would have preferred a milder pace, his weight, 115lb, and ability to accelerate makes him a dangerous closer with Dick Cardenas.

Azan's runner finished in 1:06.3, carrying 123lb, when second to MR UNIVERSE at Saturday's distance and returned to easily win at 1300 metres, clocking 1:19.2 behind a six-furlong split of 1:12.0.