Theodore aims to keep strike-rate going in Christmas Cup at Murray Bridge

Trainer Stephen Theodore is looking to Divine Fire keeping his impressive strike-rate going when she shoots for a winning hat-trick on Saturday.

After victories at Morphettville and Gawler, Divine Fire runs in the Christmas Cup (1600m) at Murray Bridge with Jacob Opperman in the saddle.

Since returning to training ranks at the start of the season after a five-year hiatus, Theordore has prepared 14 winners at an impressive strike-rate of 21.2 per cent.

Divine Fire has produced four of those victories and Theodore said it was remarkable that she was still performing at her peak after 13 runs for the campaign.

“She’s really hit her straps this mare and as the old adage goes, when they’re racing well you don’t change anything and they can keep them going,” Theodore said.

“When she joined the stable, she showed a lot of promise in the preparation of getting fit, but we were probably learning the track also when starting training out at Murray Bridge while at the same time as learning about the horse and I probably was getting the tactics wrong.

“She’s a free running animal and now that we’ve identified that’s the best way to ride her, she’s really running through her grades quite quickly.”

Divine Fire faces a dramatic class rise on Saturday, jumping from benchmark 64 grade to a benchmark 80.

But Theodore said the mare was on her home track and extremely fit.

“With the minimum again on her home deck and an extremely fit animal you know if there’s any chinks in the armour of the higher rated animals in the in the race, you’re certainly going to expose them,” Theodore said.

“She’ll take a bit of running down once again.”

Theodore also has high hopes for Limbering, part-owned by his father Les, in the Chapman Heavy Mechanical Handicap (1200m) who is a three-time winner since joining his stable in July.

“She’s a horse that does deserve a Saturday metropolitan win on her CV,” Theodore said.

“She’s been knocking on the door plenty of times. She’s been ridden a lot of times by apprentices because she’s not a big animal, but with Jacob Opperman, who’s having a really good run with the stable aboard, she’ll run well again.

“I’ve got 11 in work at the moment and the facilities that we have hold 22.

“We’re halfway to filling the stable, so all I can do is keep training winners and hopefully attract more clients.”