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Ballarat-based trainer Matt Cumani faces a nervous wait as his untapped filly Anthemoessa sweats on a flight from Melbourne to the Gold Coast in time for Saturday’s 2018 Magic Millions 2YO Classic.
On Tuesday morning Cumani’s two-year-old daughter of Smart Missile was one of the big winners in the barrier draw for this summer’s Restricted Listed $2 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1200m) coming up trumps with gate four.
That could become barrier three if the third of five emergencies, Spirit’s Pride (1) comes out of gate one.
A maiden after two starts, Anthemoessa has jockey Jordan Childs on standby for the ride and she has enjoyed back-to-back seconds to kick off her career.
On the improve and set to get one of the runs of the race, the big issue now is getting Anthemoessa on a flight before Magic Millions Race Day.
Originally the filly was set to fly to the Gold Coast on Monday evening, but was bumped from the flight due to an overload of cargo.
“We’ve done the hard part but seemingly the hard part is getting up there,” Cumani told Racing Victoria.
“We’re booked on flights every night but it’s a pretty dodgy set-up with the flights as we get bumped off if there’s more cargo so we’re a little bit nervous about it.”
On debut at her home Ballarat track in late November Anthemoessa ran a distant second behind runaway winner La Pomme de Pin in the $200,000 Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1000m).
She was then seen racing at Caulfield on December 16 as a $21 outsider in a two-years-old set weights sprint over 1100m where she crossed a length second behind Ollivander.
Despite the promising lead-up and gun gate, Anthemoessa is only rated a $26 outsider in the latest Magic Millions 2YO Classic odds online at Ladbrokes.com.au.
Cumani is now looking at private air transport for his Magic Millions Classic contender, not wanting to miss out on a shot at the lucrative Queensland showdown.
“What I am hoping to do is to charter a flight but I need everyone else [other trainers] to agree and ideally I need someone to guarantee the flight,” he said.
“We’re happy to pay a large chunk of it but I don’t want to get lumped with paying for the whole charter myself.”
Fellow Ballarat-based trainer Darren Weir could further worsen Cumani’s woes as he too awaits transportation for his four Magic Millions horses this season.
“He [Weir] might get preference over us because he’s got more horses and he does it [flies to Queensland] a bit more regularly,” Cumani conceded.
“Weiry told me from his experience that you are a two in three chance of getting a flight so that’s pretty poor odds if you ask me.
“We can’t do much but wait for the call. We try and keep in touch (with airline transport). We tend not to get anything definite until about 10 o’clock at night but we’re ready to go at any time they give us the OK.
“But we were booked last night and got bumped off.”
There may be uncertainty about how Anthemoessa will get to the Gold Coast Racecourse for Saturday, but one thing Cumani is sure of is that the filly will put herself right in the race from the barrier.
“We’re [in barrier] four and probably three if the emergency doesn’t get a run,” he said.
“Both the owner and I got asked independently what barrier we would prefer and he said four and I said three so we both got our wish.”
To back your favourite Magic Millions 2YO Classic 2018 runners at the right price this season visit Ladbrokes.com.au today.
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