Melbourne Cup winning jockey Brett Prebble will pilot leading trainer Gwenda Markwell’s promising duo Excelsior and Angel Of Truth when they make a return this weekend.
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The stable confirmed to The Punt that Prebble has been booked for both rides at Saturday’s Group 2 Expressway Stakes meeting at Rosehill Gardens.
Prebble returned to Australia in the second half of last year shortly after making the decision to end a 16-year stint racing in Hong Kong.
He has spent the bulk of the past six months in Melbourne, where he won the Melbourne Cup aboard Green Moon in 2012.
However, the experienced Group 1 winning hoop has spent the past seven days riding in New South Wales at Canterbury, Randwick, Wyong and Warwick Farm.
On Saturday he will join forces with Markwell in Sydney as Excelsior and Angel Of Truth return for Kembla’s leading trainer.
Both three-year-olds had a track gallop at the Illlawarra Turf Club earlier this month as Markwell looks to potentially target the Provincial Championships in the autumn.
Excesior has been nominated for a benchmark 78 handicap (1400m), which the stable hopes will provide a stepping stone for the first heat of the Provincial series at Hawkesbury on February 24.
The Poet’s Voice four-year-old is already a two-time winner at metropolitan level.
Angel Of Truth will tackle a benchmark 72 handicap (1400m) in her return.
The three-year-old won back-to-back races at Kembla Grange in November last year before being given a short break to prepare for The Championships.
The stable will make a decision after Saturday’s run what the next step will be with Angel Of Truth.
The filly is eligible for the Provincial Championships, which begin with the Hawkesbury qualifier before heats at Newcastle, Gosford, Kembla Grange and Wyong.
Kembla’s qualifier is the fourth on the schedule and will be run on March 23.
The lucrative $500,000 final will take place three weeks later on day two of The Championships at Royal Randwick.