Our Chain Of Command's last-start victory - the Tab corp Park Melton Cup on August 6
Dean Braun has never been afraid to declare he thinks Our Chain Of Command is a star of the future and on Sunday night the former Kiwi gelding gets the chance to prove his trainer right.
The Lara horseman has set the five-year-old the challenge of pulling off the seldom-achieved feat of winning a Barastoc Grand Circuit leg first-up by starting him in the $100,000 Group 1 Tasmania Cup at Hobart.
“People are probably going to have a question mark against him going into it first-up, but it doesn’t concern me one little bit,” Braun said confidently. “He’s had a stack of work, we set him for this race all along, he’s had two trials and he’s spot on.
“If he wasn’t spot on he wouldn’t be going because I won’t run the risk of flattening him first-up and ruining his whole preparation because he’s a very, very serious horse and I’ve got a lot of time for him.”
The son of Julius Caesar raised eyebrows at his only Australian campaign when he won five in a row during winter after a first-up third from the stand when he was slow to begin. Among those wins were the Winter Championship Final for M0s and the Tabcorp Park Melton Cup for M1-M2s.
The gelding tuned up for his first-up assault with two trials, the latest a head second to former champion youngster Captain Joy on Monday night when they ran home the last 800m in 57.13 seconds on a rain-soaked Tabcorp Park.
“Chris (Alford, driver) never turned the stick around, he never pulled the deafeners out and was very, very happy with him,” Braun said. “I was very happy with the way he came on from his first trial to his second trial and he’s trained on terrific this week.”
Aiding Our Chain Of Command’s cause is a dream barrier for the 2579-metre event that this year switched from a standing start to mobile start. He had to draw inside barrier six under the preferential conditions and came up with the ace – gate one.
“He’s got terrific gate speed, whatever we need to do (at the start),” Braun said. “He’s pretty versatile; he’s led, he’s sat parked then he’s come off the trail and also sat three-wide without cover.”
Braun’s other Tasmania Cup representative, The Gunstar, didn’t fare so well at the draw – landing outside the front row (seven) – but the trainer hasn’t given up hope after a promising third to Bold Cruiser in an unsuitable sit-sprint affair last Saturday night.
“They dropped him off when they really dashed, but his last 50 (metres) was as good as any of them and I give him a fantastic chance too,” Braun said. “If the speed was on, he might be the one getting home over the top of them.”
Victoria Cup also-ran Cincinnati Kid (barrier 10), the classy Village Of Dreams (nine), reliable old-stager Ti Vogliobene (eight), progressive mare Glenferrie Alexis (11) and Thomas Pyke are the other Victorians who will head down for the 9.23pm event.
Local star Gedlee (two) – a winner of his past eight starts – and promising Brain Hancock-trained five-year-old Vegas Bound (three) look the biggest threats to a Victorian win.
