For Patrick Payne to achieve wins in Victoria's two most important jumps races, the Grand National hurdle and steeple, the trainer realises he must overcome arguably the state's finest steeplechaser in years.
Former champion jockey Payne will have two starters - Sea King and Krase - in Sunday's $250,000 Grand National Steeple, with Sea King looking to add to his recent national hurdle success.
However, there is one major stumbling block and that is the pre-race favourite and remarkable fencer Bashboy who again looks set to add to his already decorated career in the winter months.
"I know he's going to be awfully hard to beat. He looked like a jumping machine to me when he won at Warrnambool, but at the same time I'm not giving up my hopes of winning and putting the race on a platter for him.
"The handicapper has us five kilos apart, and so it should be considering what he's done and what Sea King hasn't done, but I'm still confident he'll be right in the finish.
"I took him to Cranbourne a little time ago and he looked very good going over the taller fences as against the hurdles he was jumping at Sandown last time. But it's timely to remember that Sea King has a very strong jumping record back in New Zealand and one of the main reasons we brought him over, is that steeples in Victoria are about the same size as the hurdles back in New Zealand," Payne said.
While Bashboy appears to have a mortgage on one of jumping's most important races, the steeple school at Cranbourne that Sea King performed in also had another national hopeful, Wells, making his fencing debut on the same day.
By all reports, the two first-time fencers, Wells and Sea King, look bright and ready for a crack at the grand national.
"It's interesting hurdlers seem to have a great record when they switch straight into fencing for the first time. It seems that hurdlers have a lot more dash about them, whereas seasoned fencers appear to go just that bit slower.
"While I'd be really pleased if Krase was to win, I think the better jumpers might have the wood on him. And while there's only five runners, all five on their day are winning hopes," he said.
Payne said that he was also hopeful that Fieldmaster would be highly competitive in the $100,000 Houlahan Hurdle, the second major jumping race on the day.
At the moment Melbourne Racing Club track officials have declared the Sandown surface a dead five, which should help make this year's Grand National Steeple one the best in years.
