Caption: Brent Kline and Snowy Waugh after a recent win at Albion Park. (Photo: Box 1 Photography)

By Pat McLeod

Brent Kline is confident his lightning starter Snowy Waugh will lead Saturday night’s field of Rising Stars at Ipswich, but that is when the questions will kick in.

The first query will be answered just after his young bitch travels 200 metres – whether she then hits a confidence crisis and slows down.

Then the second question: Where is Tom Tzouvelis’ Scarlatti?

Kline has no doubt Snowy Waugh has the ability to overcome a crack field in Saturday night’s $43,125 Ipswich Rising Stars Final, but also knows his Aussie Infrared x Shilo chaser is a work in progress.

He explains that early in her 13-race career she was severely marred, which has resulted in a confidence crash ever since.

“A lot of people don’t understand what happened to her early in her race career,” he says in reference to the marring incident.

“For a younger dog like her it is taking a fair while to get her confidence back.

“She is still trying to work her way through that.  

“She has great early speed and she finishes really strongly, but it is just that middle section, about 200 metres into the race, where she has that flat spot where she is lacking confidence.

“That flat spot in her race, just coming out of the first corner, is what is holding her back at the moment.

“When she can hear them coming behind her she starts to panic a little bit and she’s possibly looking for that dog to mar her again.

“Once the other dog passes her and she realises that she is not going to be hurt, she goes back into ‘OK let’s have fun again and chase’.”

Kline says he sees signs of the lightly-built bitch regaining her confidence, but admits he is ‘about 50 per cent there’.

“Ultimately, what I want to see her do is lead, hold that lead by three or four lengths, and then go on to win by a couple of lengths,” he says.

“When I see her do that that’s when I will be a happy man.

“Trust me, it is not an ability thing. When I put her around on her own she proves that. It is a confidence thing with other dogs.”

Kline says races such as the Rising Stars present a double-edged sword. There will be very fast dogs chasing her, but she will learn those dogs only have eyes for the lure.

“At this stage she needs good dogs in front of her that are going to focus on the lure because that’s what she needs, that same confidence to get onto the lure and stay on the lure,” he says.

“With prizemoney at $30,000 to the winner, if it was this week that she decides to put the pedal to the metal then, fingers crossed it is this week she regains her confidence.

“But at the end of the day I just want to see her not have her flat spot, because then she will be really enjoying her racing.”

Even with Jedda Cutlack’s Vince Curry Maiden winner, Duffman, a scratching from this Saturday night’s final Kline says there is no shortage of contenders.

“You could run the race eight times and have eight different winners,” he says.

“However, I don’t think there are any in the field that can go with my girl early, that is why I am not concerned with the seven box.

“It doesn’t really matter what box she gets, she’s pretty reliable off the mat.

“I believe she will lead and there could be trouble behind her.

“The biggest danger in the race? There are a few, but Scarlatti (Box 3) is very strong to the line.

“If I am leading by two or three going into the first corner, then I am looking to see where Scarlatti is.”