Rhythm To Spare (Image: Racing Photos)
Rhythm To Spare might not have weight-for-age credentials, but his trainer Mike Moroney is banking on the galloper's career-best form and his fitness to take him a long way in Saturday's Group 2 Dato' Tan Chin Nam Stakes at The Valley.
Moroney declared his eight-year-old veteran had never raced better off the back of two 1600-metre wins at Flemington and Caulfield and he said that if he was ever going to be tried in such a feature race, this one was ideal.
"It's not what you'd say is a strong mile race," Moroney said on Friday morning. "He takes in really good mile form and up against horses that arguably, when they are really fit, will want to go further.
"I know they are on the way up so he'll catch them at the right part of their preparation, but certainly it doesn't look a strong race.
"I think it's He's Our Rokkii and my bloke who take the real mile form there.
"I think he's going in career-best form. He's continued to show us that on the track and he's bright and full of himself."
WATCH: Rhythm To Spare's last-start Caulfield win
Moroney said the weight-for-age scale of the Dato' Tan Chin Nam Stakes meant Rhythm To Spare was not well-off against better performed horses but the trainer said the timing of the race and the likelihood that his galloper will make his own luck on speed would be telling factors.
"It is his biggest test mainly because he's not overly big and he's got some weight but there doesn't look as though there will be a lot going forward so he'll be up in the first four somewhere," Moroney predicted.
"That's the thing about him - you can ride him anywhere. If they go a little quick he can settle that pair further back and if not, he can settle handier.
"I think the horse is going terrific. He's unproven at weight-for-age but it looks the right race to try him."