Champion trainer Adam Durrant will be searching for a fourth victory in the TABtouch Perth Cup this Saturday when he saddles up Come Right Back in the $400,000 Group 2 feature.
After previous wins with Lords Ransom (2010), Real Love (2015) and Star Exhibit (2019) off the back of lead-up runs in Group and Listed races, the nine-time metropolitan premiership-winning trainer will be attempting something new with the Toronado five-year-old in the 2022 edition of the Perth Cup.
Come Right Back ($31) is coming out of ratings races and has never contested a black-type event in his 22-start career, however, Durrant would love nothing more than to win the time-honoured race for his long-time owner, Andy Phelan.
“Andy has been around for a long time and has been a great supporter of ours,” Durrant said.
“We’ve had some great times and some really nice horses together.
“This horse has got his wins left in him still but he might be more of an Albany, Geraldton, Pinjarra and Bunbury Cup type of horse getting in on the minimum, rather than a Perth Cup horse.
“That’s no disrespect to the horse.
“I think he’s got a future ahead of him but this might be just that fraction strong for him, but time will tell.”
A last-start runner-up to Sentimental Friend when carrying 59kg in Graduation company, Durrant feels Come Right Back will be at the peak of his powers when having his fifth start for his campaign on Saturday and will relish dropping to the 53kg race-minimum weight.
“He’s in good order,” he said.
“He’s in probably career-best form and he’s trained on into this race, but I think we can all agree it’s a step up in grade from what he’s been tackling.
“He does drop substantially in weight and he’s always been a horse that carries a fair bit of weight.
“He won those early lower-rating races and it jumped him up to a 70 rater pretty quickly, so he was carrying around 59 and 60 kilos.
“He’s trained on well since his last run, we’ve had him down the beach rushing and I think he’s in that fitness zone where he can’t get any better as far as that goes.
“It’s just a matter of ability and whether he’s quite up to that grade.”
Durrant admitted he and Phelan had thoughts of scratching the gelding from the Perth Cup, however, after another conversation they decided to have a throw at the stumps.
He also paid further tribute to the owner-breeder’s long-standing support for his stable.
“Andy’s a great breeder but even more than that he’s a fantastic all-round guy and he’s always supported us well,” Durrant said.
“He’s never had any high expectations of anything and is always grateful of his horses.
“He loves his horses and puts them first and he enjoys the animal and even his slower ones over the years, he loves to get out to the provincials and if they win one race sometimes that’s enough for him.
“He’s gone off the breeding a little bit now and has actually bought quite a lot of small shares in a lot of the horses I purchased at the sales a couple of years ago.
“He’s one of those very lucky owners so I love it when he rings up and says, ‘I’ll take a leg of this one, Adam’, because generally the lucky owners bring that good luck to the races with those horses.”
Durrant has eight runners engaged to race at Saturday’s Ascot meeting, including last-start Listed Starstruck Classic winner, Beret, who is the current $3.90 favourite for the Group 3 La Trice Classic.
Boom filly The Front Bar will also be looking for her first stakes success when she aims for her fourth-straight win in the Listed Summer Scorcher in what will be her final start in WA after being sold to eastern states connections.