Spacewalk to line up for rival team in $1m The Meteorite

Assistant trainer Nacim Dilmi joked Busuttin Racing maybe looking to secure some Godolphin horses for their stable with Spacewalk running for the opposition in the inaugural running of The Meteorite at Cranbourne.

The Meteorite is one of two slot-races to be run by Southside Racing, the merged Club of Cranbourne and Pakenham with Saturday’s The Meteorite holding total prize money of $1 million.

Cranbourne-based trainers Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young have entered an agreement with Godolphin for the James Cummings-trained Spacewalk to run in their slot in the 1200m contest on Saturday.

“I don’t know if Trent is after a few horses for Godolphin, but I don’t blame him for trying,” Dilmi said after Spacewalk galloped on the course-proper at Cranbourne on Tuesday morning.

“He’s a nice sprinter. He’s competed in the last couple of Flemington carnivals at a good level, and he’s been competitive.

“It’s good to see people still wanting a couple of nice horses.

“The horse to beat on Saturday looks like being Baraqiel, but there’s a couple of in-form horses in the race too, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he (Spacewalk) draws a nice gate, he’ll be right up there in the finish.”

Southside Racing hosted a breakfast gallops session at the Cranbourne racetrack, away from the normal hustle and bustle of the Cranbourne Training Complex on Tuesdsay morning.

A number of stables took advantage of galloping their horses on the course proper, with Dilmi making the hour-long trip from Flemington with Spacewalk.

“It’s very rare we would come all the way to Cranbourne, but obviously it’s the inaugural running of the race,” Dilmi said.

“The slot holders are based here, although they were not here this morning to watch him work.

“It was good just to get him away from Flemington. He’s had a couple of starts at home this prep and he run well second-up, but first-up, he did a few things wrong.

“It was good to bring him here just to have a look around the track and Ben Melham said he looked around a little bit.

“We didn’t want him to have a hard gallop, it was more so that he could be away from home, have look at the track, and being a tight track, hopefully it’s to his advantage on Saturday.”