Mark Minervini sets sights on Newcastle Cup

Four years after relocating from Adelaide to Newcastle, Mark Minervini will saddle up his first runner in his adopted ‘hometown’ Cup and he is quietly confident Hosier can bring home the major prize.

Formerly owned by Lloyd Williams, Hosier was sold to Minervini and a group of stable clients for $100,000 in May, the horse already banking more than $180,000 in five subsequent starts.

He will almost double that haul if successful in the Group 3 Newcastle Gold Cup (2300m) on Friday where he is one of just three locally trained runners along with the Kris Lees pair of Cleveland and Kalapour.

“This is where we are now and this is our home track, so definitely we consider it our hometown Cup,” Minervini said.

“He’s going to be a live chance. We’re not just making up the numbers and that’s pretty exciting. Even stable clients who aren’t involved in Hosier are excited for us, I can’t wait.”

Hosier has been in a wonderful vein of form, relishing a distance rise to 2000m two starts ago to capture the Premier’s Cup at Randwick before being eased down in the Wyong Cup last start when he struck the backwash of a mid-race fall.

“The horse came down in front of him and he actually leapt over it and then he had to leap over (fallen jockey) Regan Bayliss,” Minervini said.

“Luckily, he’s absolutely one hundred per cent. He hasn’t got a scratch on him, which is hard to believe.

“He’s had two strong gallops since the Wyong Cup, he galloped (Tuesday) morning on the course proper and worked strongly and pulled up well so he’s good to go.”

The Cup distance is unchartered territory for Hosier, who has rarely been extended beyond 2000m, but Minervini says the horse has the pedigree and temperament to relish it.

“He’s bred to stay and when he won the Premier’s Cup at Randwick he was lovely and relaxed,” he said.

“I don’t think it will be an issue. I probably think it’s going to be a more suitable tempo for him.

“Whether it’s right or wrong, we’ve got him in the Caulfield Cup, The Metropolitan, he’s paid up for the Cox Plate, the Melbourne Cup.

“He’s in everything and if he’s going to progress, he’d need to be super competitive on Friday.”

The Newcastle Cup is one of three black-type races on the spring program, along with the Cameron Handicap (1500m) for which the Chris Waller-trained Skyman is an early favourite, and the Tibbie Stakes (1400m) featuring the Mona Lisa Stakes trifecta of Mirra View, Sanstoc and Wollombi.

The meeting will also feature retiring jockey Damien Oliver who will ride for Lees in the three main races – Kalapour in the Cup, Luncies in the Cameron and Bellatrix Black in the Tibbie.