Thrive to Grp 1 Spring Classic

Last start Merial Ancare Metric Mile winner Thrive will be a nomination for Saturday's $250,000 Turks Spring Classic when late entries close at noon tomorrow for the third leg of the Hawke's Bay triple crown.

The decision to pay the $1,581.25 late fee was made late today after a meeting between owners Ken Browne and David Ellis and trainer Jason Bridgman.

“She's in peak condition and we've decided this may be the time to have a throw at the stumps,” Bridgman told www.theinformant.co.nz. “Ideally it would be good to see some rain to bring the track back into her preferred range, but there's a Group One placing at stake and it would be a worthwhile exercise if she was to even run third.”

The Colombia mare scored her fifth win from 17 starts - and her first in stakes company - when she won easily at Awapuni on September 14. The 2040 metres of Saturday's feature will be the furthest distance she has tried, but she has won up to 1800 metres.

Bridgman, whose new season tally climbed to 15 wins from 51 starters when Spellbinder won the Listed Soliloquy Stakes at Ellerslie last weekend, will also start All Decked Out and Wolfwhistle in Saturday's Gr. 2 DHL Hawke's Bay Guineas.

First day Makfi Challenge Stakes winner Survived heads the TAB's fixed odds market for the Turks Spring Classic at $2.80, with Windsor Park Plate third placegetter Nashville next at $3.50.

The Hastings track is currently rated Good 3, with a mostly fine forecast for the remainder of the week likely to require irrigation to present the same rating on raceday.

Story credit - Dennis Ryan, The Informant