Starspangled Baby will carry sentimental hopes in this year’s Sale Cup.
The Sale-trained six-year-old mare has local knowledge on its side and will be looking to draw on every ounce of it when the gates fly open on Sunday.
She also knows how to win Gippsland Country cups, having taken out last year’s Traralgon Cup.
Now running 300 metres less than the Traralgon Cup distance of 1900m, but in an admittedly tougher race, trainer Andrew Perdon is doing everything he can to get Starspangled Baby primed and ready.
“The Sale Cup is getting stronger and stronger each year, but I think we are going in with a live chance,” he told The Gippsland Times.
“She’s won the Traralgon Cup, come second in the Bairnsdale Cup, so she’s up to the class, it’s just up to how she performs on the day.”
Starspangled Baby won a Benchmark 70 at Mornington at the end of last month over 1500m on a track rated a Good 3.
Fellow Gippslander Jason Maskiell rode the winner that day, and the Trafalgar jockey has been on board for three of its last four starts.
Perdon believed the Sale Cup distance would suit the mare perfectly.
“She won here last year on Sale Cup Day over the same distance (1600m), obviously weaker class, but she likes the home track and goes well here,” he said.
“She’s definitely come on the last 12 months, she’s an open class mare now and looking to pick up a country cup somewhere.”
As well as Starspangled Baby, which Perdon rated as the best horse in his stable, he might yet enter four-year-old gelding Dummy Spit and six-year-old gelding Raid The Bar for races on Sale Cup Day as well.
Raid The Bar gave Perdon his first win as a trainer earlier this year.
Perdon now has an all-encompassing view of racing, having made the move from owner to trainer.
“It’s been good, it’s always interesting, quite enjoying it, there’s a heap of local mates who are in it so it’s been good,” he said of the transition.
Having been involved in racing for the best part of 20 years, Perdon might yet have reason to add another chapter to his story come Sunday.
