Parsard points to Potcheen for Mile

PART-OWNER Ian Parsard has hinted that his father's trio - local-bred POTCHEEN, alongside imported stablemates UPPA TUNE and PETE'SWILDONE - could run their best races this season in Saturday's $13.5m Supreme Ventures Diamond Mile at Caymanas Park.

Though they dominated grade one races last year, accounting for a memorable 1-2-3 finish in the Gold Cup, led by POTCHEEN, the Harry Parsard-trained trio has not been as dominant this

season.

Whereas UPPA TUNE trained on best this season, notching three grade-one victories and a strong second to PERFECT NEIGHBOUR with topweight in the Gold Cup, PETE'SWILDONE has been winless. POTCHEEN has only had one victory in six starts.

However, Ian believes PETE'SWILDONE and POTCHEEN, especially, have shown enough improvement, just in time for the rich Diamond Mile.

Lamenting that UPPA TUNE "has a whole bunch of hurdles to scale" such as the distance and handicaps being against him, Ian said POTCHEEN has impressed at exercise and is rounding back to his best.

"We gave POTCHEEN his usual break in the summer. In May, he won a very sharp sprint race. We gave him a break, programming the Caribbean Sprint, Gold Cup and Diamond Mile. His comeback run in September was a good one but underperformed a bit.

"Everything was on target for the Sprint and we felt confident he had a high chance of repeating, but, unfortunately, he had an allergic reaction in which his coat condition was compromised, causing him to miss the Sprint," Ian explained.

coat recovery

"Since then, his coat has recovered to about 90 per cent. However, what he is showing on track is a recovery of more than 100 per cent. Last Wednesday, he had a strong pace work. On Sunday, he galloped seven furlongs in 1:27.0, which has been reported as 1:13.3," he pointed out, adding that he has no concerns about POTCHEEN getting a mile on his best form.