Begg chasing first city win since return

The winners are starting to flow in Victoria for trainer Grahame Begg and the next step is to snare a city success.

Begg has had five winners from his past seven runners with his small team based out of the Pinecliff facility on the Mornington Peninsula, and has had a total of 12 winners since beginning a new phase of his training career in Victoria last year.

“The horses have been aiming up, which is good,” Begg said.

“They’re only small races but it’s a matter of getting a few of these horses a bit of confidence.

“And we’re familiarising ourselves with different tracks and the scene down here. But it’s been good.

“We’re pleased with the way things have progressed.”

Begg trained a host of Group One winners out of Randwick during his 25 years there before closing his stable in December 2014 and taking a break.

He relocated in the middle of last year to open a boutique stable with 12 boxes at Pinecliff, with eight horses currently racing and some unraced horses on the books.

Woman In Red will try to give Begg his first city win since his return in Saturday’s VOBIS Sires (1200m) at Caulfield.

The filly broke her maiden at her fourth start on March 31 at Cranbourne, earning a crack at the $300,000 race for juveniles by Victorian-based stallions nominated for the VOBIS Gold Series.

“We’ve had very few city runners but we’ve got a few which are shaping up at the moment and likely to head to the city which is good,” Begg said.

“So that’s certainly a goal (to get a city winner) but I think the main goal is to just keep on winning as many races as we can and keep placing them well.”

Woman In Red led to win the Cranbourne maiden but has the outside barrier on Saturday which is Begg’s concern, although the filly has race experience on her side.

“I don’t know if we’ll be able to do something similar on Saturday with a lot of speed drawn inside her,” he said.

“We’re probably going to have to ride her for a bit of luck.

“It’s a race where there doesn’t appear to be any stand-outs. It looks a very even race on paper and a few unraced horses are in it.

“I think she profiles well into the race.”