Kent Jr & Price looking for strong run from their The Supernova duo

Pakenham Racecourse is set to host the first ever The Supernova this Saturday. The training team of Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr. have entered two horses into the $1,00,000 race, Welwal and Robrick.

They are hoping for a big showing from their gallopers in the new 1400m race, and say that they are prepared to make some big calls ahead of the race in order to give themselves the best chances possible of winning the first The Supernova.

Welwal looking to build reputation

Welwal is a new addition to the Price and Kent Jr. racing team. The duo took over training the six-year-old gelding from Chris Waller six months ago. So far, things have gone almost perfectly.

The son of Shalaa won his first race as a Price and Kent Jr. horse on November 30 in the Group 3 Kevin Heffernan Stakes. That victory earned him a place in this Saturday’s The Supernova.

Speaking about his new gelding, Price said: “We’ve had the horse for six months and we’ve had to re-engineer him.

“He’s thrived down at the Balnarring stables at the beach, he’s good in that environment and we’ve got him at Cranbourne now and he’s good in that environment too.

“He’s a very happy horse.”

Team to experiment

While things are going well for Welwal so far as a member of Price and Kent Jr.’s stable, the gelding is still far from being a galloper who can regularly contend in Group 1 races.

Because he still has a ways to go, the team says they are open to experimenting with Welwal a bit. Namely, his trainers think blinkering might be a good option for this weekend’s $1,000,000 race.

“We were experimenting with blinkers on him because J-Mac (James McDonald) said to Junior (Kent Jr.), ‘I can’t wait to see him in blinkers’,” Price revealed this week.

“He wanted them on when the horse was at Chris Wallers, so we’ve been experimenting with blinkers on, just a fiddle with them, but he’s going super.

“And any toe in the ground would be nice for him too.”

Welwal & Robrick’s The Supernova odds

Price’s comments about experimenting with Welwal haven’t done anything to cool the horse racing betting market around him. The gelding is still one of the three major contenders for The Supernova this weekend.

At $9 odds, only Tuvalu ($8) and Here To Shock ($6) have better chances to win The Supernova than Welwal.

The betting sites are less kind to Robrick. The four year old has just $16 odds to win and has been largely overlooked in most Pakenham tips pieces ahead of this weekend’s big race. Price hopes Robrick can surprise though.

The trainer says that “Robrick is a better 1400-metre horse, and he ran really well at Cranbourne.”

However, Price also added “Welwal, if he can get his toe in, is a better chance, but the 1400 metres is good for both of them.

“Robrick is not without a chance, but I think Welwal is probably the better credentialled.”