Lightly raced Joy Too All will be out to take a claim for next month’s Magic Millions Country Cup when she starts at Ipswich on Wednesday.
Trainer David Vandyke has pencilled in the $250,000 feature over 1200 metres on January 8 – a week before the gala Magic Millions Raceday at the Gold Coast.
Joy Too All – a winner of four of her six starts – will start in the Class 5 Handicap over 1100 metres in her second run back from a five-month break.
The daughter of All Too Hard made a triumphant return to racing scoring a dominant win over 1100 metres at Ipswich on November 10.
She was subsequently entered for several races but Vandyke was forced to scratch her due to the recent rain in South East Queensland.
Joy Too All was a $170,00 buy at the Magic Millions sales at the Gold Coast in 2018 but she still has a long way to go to recoup her purchase price with prizemoney earnings of $63,600.
“I’m thinking of running her in the Country Cup and part of the conditions is she has to run twice outside the metropolitan area,” Vandyke said.
“She won her last start well at Ipswich and she’s come on well since so she should be hard to beat again.
“We were originally looking at the Fillies and Mares race for her on Magic Millions day but we’re not confident she would get in as her rating is not high enough.
“She’s already been balloted out of a few races because of her low rating.”
Vandyke has a good opinion of the five-year-old mare and will chase Stakes races later in her career.
“She’s a nice mare and she’s very consistent and I think there’s a black-type race in her somewhere down the track,” he said.
Vandyke also rates last start winner Demurral a strong chance to win the Benchmark 65 Handicap over 2180 metres.
Vandyke has been in great form training five winners from his past 10 starters.
The former Sydney trainer is now well established at Caloundra and has a season strike rate of 24 per cent with 28 winners from 116 starters.
His Ipswich strike rate also is impressive with 13 wins from 34 starts for a 38.2 per cent winning record.
