Caption: A heat win for Matt Heilbronn’s Dulceria has proven a headache for the trainer’s Townsville Cup plans (Photo: Box 1 Photography)

 Alex Nolan’s Albion Park wrap

Trainer Tony Brett says he has plenty of work ahead of him with the talented, yet troublesome Indictment.

Indictment (Jury x Velocity Onyx) set Albion Park alight in August with two blistering wins.

However, Brett was visibly frustrated following Indictment’s win in a heat of the Publican’s Cup.

The smart two-year-old was forced to again overcome a slow start to qualify for the August 26 final.

He will now get to work on improving Indicment’s box manners before he even considers setting his sights on more lucrative targets.

“He’s ultra-exciting, but it’s frustrating that he’s doing things wrong that later in his career will cause him trouble. I just know the difference between a really fast dog and a good race dog,” Brett said.

Thought to be smart after his Maiden win in 29.80sec at Albion Park on July 19, Indictment really set tongues wagging after overcoming early trouble from Box 7 to win a 520m Novice in 29.72sec on August 12.

He confirmed his bright prospects in the Publican’s Cup heat, defying a market drift to win in 29.69sec.

Brett said Indictment had developed a tendency to get over-excited now he knows he’s in a race.

The Hall of Fame trainer said he had a few ‘tricks up his sleeve’ to address the issues.

“We’ll work on it and hopefully he learns,” he said.

“It’s funny, you find one with good box speed that can’t run 500m. Then you might find one who can run a strong 500m but has bad box manners.

“Get it right, you get a champion.”

Brett is eager to steer Indictment away from Albion Park.

“The Publican’s Cup lured us back but once that’s done, he’ll go to Ipswich,” he said.

“The Molly Campbell is coming up and the Rising Star after that. We just need to find the right races while he’s making mistakes.”

In unfortunate news for the Brett kennel, Rockhampton Cup winner Orchestrate was stood down from racing for 28 days after sustaining an injury at Albion Park on August 23.

Orchestrate was sent out a $1.25 favourite in what was to be his final hit-out before September’s G3 Townsville Cup.

Stewards noted he failed to take any competitive part in the race after suffering an injury to his ‘offside pin’. Orchestrate will be required to complete a steward’s veterinary trial before racing again.

+++++

A supremely confident Matt Heilbronn was left with a headache following Dulceria’s win in her heat of the Publican’s Cup last month.

Heilbronn was confident Dulceria could win the heat and proved him correct when she stalked Hopeful Bill throughout, before zipping by in the straight to win by 2.75L (30.32sec).

However, Dulceria missed the final after Stewards noted the bitch turned her head inwards towards Hopeful Bill in the straight.

She was subsequently stood down for seven days for ‘failing to pursue the lure with due commitment by reason of injury’.

The bitch was found to have sustained a minor pin injury and Heilbronn said she was recovering well in the days after.

He believes Dulceria will be running slick times at Albion Park by the end of this year.

But the incident put his plans to tackle this month’s G3 Townsville Cup on the back foot.

He had initially planned to give Dulceria a look at the Townsville circuit before tackling the Heats on September 3, but was set to clear the four-time winner on the Sunday prior and entering the series without a local trial.

+++++

South-East trainers have signalled their interest in the G3 Townsville Cup worth $40,000, which is anticipated to be one of the strongest editions to date.

At the time of publication, Brett Hazelgrove was set to take a strong team including My Movie Star, Sea Daddy and Rusty The Crow.

Mitchell Street was also tipped to make the trip North for trainer Tom Tzouvelis.

Mitchell Street won twice over the 431m journey at Ipswich recently as a short-priced favourite.

He scored a 6.25L (24.92sec) win when sent out at $1.25 on July 27.

He backed it up with a 10.5L demolition (24.95sec) as a $1.35 favourite on August 7.

The greyhound was rumoured to be trialling impressively in the lead up to his Townsville tilt.

Wayne Scott was contemplating a potential trip North for Queensland Sprint Champion Farmor Beach, but had trouble securing suitable accommodation.

This year’s Cup has been pushed back to September from its usual August timeslot.

The Townsville club had indicated earlier this year it had expected plenty of interest from trainers south of the Tweed.

However, the current border restrictions look likely to ensure the trophy stays in the Sunshine State this year. The prizemoney boost to the Cup will ensure it will achieve Group 2 status for the first time from 2023.

+++++

Favourite backers are seeing them well at Albion Park on Thursdays, according to TAB.

The punter’s elect saluted the judge first at a strike-rate of 40% (24 from 60) throughout July.

That number took a slight dive on Wednesdays (39.1%) and a sharp dip on Mondays (35.7%).

Sunday meetings proved least profitable for TAB customers, with 17 out of 48 favourites winning at a strike-rate of 35.4%.

Of the 24 winning favourites on Thursdays, 13 were sent around as odds-on favourites.

The David Richardson trained Barsandi ($1.35) was the shortest of the bunch in winning over 710m on July 22.

The blow-out of the month went to Soda Maxi ($51) when he brought up career win nine in the Masters event on July 8.

Box 1 provided most winners on Thursdays with 19, while Box 7 was responsible for just the one winner via Shima Shine’s win in a heat of the Brisbane Cup.

+++++

Selena and Michael Zammit will abandon plans to push on over the 710m journey with Kooringa Lucy following a ‘disappointing’ first-up effort over the trip last month.

There was much speculation in the lead-up to her 710m debut as to whether the 27-time winning daughter of Fernando Bale would see out the journey.

Punters were confident of a bold showing and she started as the $1.28 favourite.

But after finding the front shortly after going past the post the first time, she was eventually run down by the Keith Snow trained Tony’s Rescue ($23).

“We’re disappointed in the run and, for now, we won’t press on over the trip,” Michael Zammit said.

For Tony’s Rescue, it was his second win in four attempts over the 710m journey at headquarters.