HELEN Burns has eight horses entered but as The Guardian went to press she was still waiting to get the final acceptances for some of them.
Burns said she was confident Fly On Bye would get a run on cup Sunday and was also hopeful her talented Miss Solar Hart would make the cut for a 1600m run on the same day.
With 12 horses in work at her stable, the part-time trainer has two horses nominated for Friday, four for Saturday and the two for Sunday.
“I would be very happy with Fly On Bye if he got a start and did enough to finish anywhere in the first five,” Burns said.
“He’s only had the one start for me at Bendigo last December and then I tipped him out because the tracks were becoming too hard for the six-year-old gelding.
“It would be great if we had a soft track for the carnival this year; it makes such a difference.”
Miss Solar Hart ran a third at the recent Mildura meeting – that was over 1400m – and Burns has the four-year-old mare targeting a 1600m on the Sunday.
She said the Mildura run was good, but the test would be getting the extra 200m out of her at the business end of the race.
Cortain also has a strong chance of contesting a BM 0-58 over 1600m on Saturday.
The trainer has also been hanging on the telephone trying to line up jockeys on the chance her horses do get a start.
But she has a Plan B if that all goes wrong.
On Sunday there is also a meeting at Edenhope and that’s where Burns finished up on the cup Sunday in 2024.
“I had some runners at Echuca earlier this week but if we get squeezed out of our own track because there are so many nominations then I will be heading back to Edenhope this year as well,” Burns admitted.
“It’s a bit of a downer – it’s 3.5 hours there and 3.5 hours back and on the way to Edenhope you pass all these floats going the other way to Swan Hill, and then on the way home you pass them all going the other way.
“It would be so much better if I was simply racing at home in our home cup carnival.”
With Hell’s Empire, The Last Judgement and Superior Force having gone upstream to Echuca, Burns also has I’m Batman, Stupido’s Littleone, Superior Force, and First Division slated for Swan Hill – or Edenhope.
