"He's flying": Stokes spruiks Regal Award as "best of the day"

Trainer Phillip Stokes is confident in his chances to take out the Group 3 Hawkesbury Guineas (1400m) on Saturday.

In fact, he has even labelled his horse in that $250,000 race, Regal Award, as the “class runner of the day”.

Currently priced at $3.80 with Sportsbet, the three-year-old bay has two wins from eight career starts but hasn’t won across 1400m yet.

His last start was a third-place finish in the 1400m South Pacific Classic by 1.4 lengths. However, the gelding misbehaved badly in the barriers causing him to miss the start.

Since then, the son of Ole Kirk ran superbly in a 900m trial thanks to a gear change, allowing the three-year-old to jump cleanly from the gates.

Speaking on SENTrack & RSN’s Giddy Up, Stokes is certain that he has found the solution to Regal Award’s pre-race antics, which should allow the bay to flourish.

“He's a work in progress,” Stokes started.

“We put the barrier blanket on him in a trial last week, and he behaved perfect in the barriers.

“If he does everything right, we know what sort of class of horse we've got.”

The trainer exclaimed that the horse is “flying” and should run phenomenally well this weekend.

“We know he'll run well, he's flying,” continued Stokes.

“He's definitely our best of the day; he's the class runner of the day.

“I don't mind him drawing out wide (9), he can start a little bit slow and work his way across.

“Chad (Schofield) knows him well, we're really keen on him, but it's time to stand up now.”

Stokes also revealed that if the son of Ole Kirk wins the $250,000 race or finishes close to the $3.30 favourite Skyhook, then he will continue his campaign in Queensland.

“He'd probably want to be running top two to warrant going for the Fred Best (1400m) into the Stradbroke (1400m).

“Obviously Skyhook goes good in the race, so I think if he's winning or not far off Skyhook, we're in good order.”

The Hawkesbury Guineas jumps at 2:15pm AEST in Race 6 at Hawkesbury.

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