HORSE RACING
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Warwick Farm trainer Matthew Smith is hopeful Il Dominatore can reverse an out of character performance on debut with a win at Kembla Grange today.
The three-year-old gelding looked destined to salute at huge odds at Kembla a fortnight ago, before hanging badly in the straight to finish three-quarters of a length second.
"He hung off all the way and that cost him. You have got to do things right," Smith said. "He has trained nicely and it is not something he has had a bad habit of, he just seemed to be doing it that day."
"I have got no complaints about him."
The son of Domesday will step up in distance for his second visit to the races, contesting the Maiden Plate over 1600m.
With the last start in mind, Smith is planning on taking all the necessary precautions to ensure his gelding doesn't make the same mistake twice.
"I could put the blinkers on him this start just to see if we can straighten him out a bit," Smith said.
"We worked him the blinkers and he has gone nice and straight in those so I'm hoping he will do it, but he hadn't showed any signs of it leading into that race.
"In addition to the blinkers, which should help him, the visit to the races should help too."
Joining Il Dominatore in the field is stablemate Star Attire.
The well-bred filly by Dubawi is yet to place in two visits to the track but Smith is confident the improving type can feature from the wide alley.
"She is a very nice filly and she just needs a distance. She ran better last start over 1400m and I expect her to run better again over the mile," Smith said.
"She is bred to get over distance, over a mile and a quarter or mile and a half."