Riding her horses in trackwork has proved a winning formula for trainer Desleigh Forster as she chases one of her biggest wins.
Forster has Chapter And Verse in the Group Two Victory Stakes (1200m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Chapter And Verse needs to win to make the field for the Group One Stradbroke Handicap.
Forster has first-hand knowledge of how Chapter And Verse is progressing in trackwork because she has been the horse’s exercise partner.
An accomplished long-distance rider in her youth, Forster has taken to partnering many of her horses in trackwork in recent months
It has been a major reason she is enjoying one of her best seasons with 26 wins from a team which rarely exceeds a dozen horses.
“I have been riding a heap of work and it is paying off. You can feel exactly how well your horses are doing and act accordingly,” Forster said.
“I have other trackwork riders but I have been doing my share.”
Chapter And Verse has already won more than $1 million in prize money with his major wins in the Magic Millions QTIS race and the Group Three George Moore Stakes.
Forster has had the Stradbroke in mind for Chapter And Verse for more than a year but her plans were thrown out when Racing Queensland scrapped the winter carnival.
“But then a scaled down version was announced and the Stradbroke was back on,” Forster said.
“But by then we didn’t have much time to change plans. In the end we have one chance to get him in the Stradbroke and that is by winning the Victory Stakes.”
“If he wins we are in the Stradbroke with a real chance but if not we will have to find something else.”