Never Ending. Photo courtesy HRNSW
TRAINER Justin Prentice is adamant time hasn’t beaten him to have young star Never Ending primed for Friday week's Group 1 Golden Nugget.
A delayed trip back from the eastern states after his TAB Eureka trip and a more recent hiccup mean the four-year-old will have just the one lead-up race – tomorrow night’s Gloucester Park free-for-all – ahead of his next Group 1 target.
“He’s really well and he’s done plenty of work … he’s as good as we can have him without a race,” Prentice said.
“If he goes as well as I expect this week and comes on from it, I think he’ll be primed come the following Friday.
“He’s shown us how well he backs-up quickly and is better in the second run.”
That said, Prentice concedes Never Ending will have his work cut out from an outside draw (gate seven) tomorrow night, especially with main danger, Lavra Joe, drawn the pole.
“It looks tricky. Lavra Joe is going well and is always so hard to beat in front,” he said.
“I’m not really sure where our guy will be in the run, I’ll leave that to Junior (Gary Hall Jr, driver).
“He won’t need to win to show me he’s on target, just run a big race.”
Looking ahead, Prentice said he and Hall Jr had not yet discussed the driving situation for the Nugget.
Hall Jr is the regular driver of Nugget favourite, Mister Smartie, who is trained by his father, Hall Sr.
“He hasn’t even driven this horse (Never Ending) for a few months, so let’s let him have the steer this week before we start worrying about that,” Prentice said.
“I’d love him to drive Never Ending. Junior is a big part of what we do as a stable and sharing success with him is the ultimate, but I can respect the situation he’s in.
“He drives Mister Smartie, who is a really serious horse and it’s trained by his Dad. He’s also got a good campaign behind him,
“We’ll see how this race plays out and then have the chat.”
Prentice will take the reins himself if Hall Jr opts for Mister Smartie.
“I had those couple of drives on him in the lead-up to the Eureka when Junior was suspended, so that could come in handy,” Prentice laughed.
Never Ending, who boasts 16 wins from just 23 starts, hasn’t raced since getting a mile back in a slowly-run TAB Eureka and finishing only 8.3m from the winner in eighth spot back on September 7.
TAB Eureka winner, Don Hugo, has franked the form with a sparkling second round NSW Inter Dominion win at Bathurst last night (Wednesday).
