Bear's Bullet All Set For Ipswich Cup Defence
DEFENDING champion Bear’s Bullet has pulled up a treat after her Ipswich win on Saturday in preparation for the Ipswich Cup heats Thursday.
DEFENDING champion Bear's Bullet has pulled up a treat after her Ipswich success on Saturday night in preparation for the Group 1 Ipswich Gold Cup heats (520m) on Thursday night.
Bear's Bullet (Fernando Bale-Mumma's Hope) ran 30.63 when winning a Cup Prelude on Saturday night at Ipswich.
"It is the identical preparation this year to what we did with her when she won the Cup in 2023," trainer Travis Elson said.
Bear's Bullet is unbeaten in four starts at Ipswich.
FIELDS AND FORM IPSWICH THURSDAY NIGHT
She won the Gold Cup last year in 30.13 holding off a late charge from Get Carter to win narrowly with Jen's Joy in third.
"She is not going as good overall this year compared to last year, but she has got the same blistering pace out of the boxes," Travis said.
She has drawn perfectly on Thursday night in the two box.
"I like that Cluster is drawn directly on her outsider and he should give us plenty of cover around that first turn," Travis added.
"And, if dogs do get on her outside, it seems to push her to produce just a little bit more.
"She certainly needed the run on Thursday night, but has pulled up a treat.
"She did get a little tired at the end on Thursday night but that was to be expected because she had a couple of weeks off."
Travis has plenty of Gold Cup chances including veteran Hello Mike, a Group 1 winner himself and on the comeback trail, as well as Danger Zone, a last-start 22.30 winner at Albion Park, and the flying Speedy Scrub, Speed Zone and Mumma's Brew.
The Cup heats have most of the Queensland stars, including superstar Jay Is Jay, drawn box eight in his heat for his comeback to racing, but also a smattering of visitors.
Among those is Tom Dailly's Smooth Plane which was unplaced in the Group 2 Cranbourne Cup at Sandown on October 24.
He has drawn the rails in his heat but has won 19 races and $223,000 and finished second in the G1 National Sprint and been a finalist at Group 1 level on three other occasions.