Winner gets Rae back on track

But Rae will be hoping her recent upturn in fortunes can continue when Queanbeyan hosts its final meeting before a nearly two-month break on Monday.

Both last-start winner Bold Reality and promising three-year-old Prince of Destiny will back up after strong runs at Queanbeyan on Boxing Day.

Bold Reality’s win in the Class 2 Handicap (1460m) was the stable’s first salute in “a fair while” according to Rae and came after a succession of placings in its previous seven starts.

And Rae said she was hopeful the five-year-old may have finally found some consistency having failed to put two runs together in his previous preparations.

“He was overdue for a win I’d say,” she said. “He’s matured slowly which is why he’s only had 20 starts as a five-year-old; he’s taken a while to pick it up.

“But he’s been very consistent lately. He’s toughened up and matured a fair bit this preparation I think.”

Rae has nominated Bold Reality for the Benchmark 50 Handicap (1460m) on Monday where the gelding will likely face a far tougher ask than in Boxing Day’s non-TAB meeting.

Prince of Destiny, meanwhile, will also back up after racing in Canberra on December 27 with the son of Zariz having run second in each of his two starts to date.

Despite obvious potential, Prince of Destiny’s issues in the gates having twice failed barrier trials have been cause for concern in the Rae camp.

“We’ve had a lot of trouble with him at the barriers but we seem to have got over that problem and he seems pretty promising,” Rae said.

“He’s a big, gangly horse and he gets claustrophobic in the barriers but we sent him down to [trainer] Richard Clarke in Braidwood who did a lot of good work with him getting his confidence in the barriers up.”

Monday’s meet will see Queanbeyan host a seven-race program with the first race at 1.37pm.