Leeton’s Grant Coelli will be out to achieve a lifelong dream in Tuesday night’s $30,600 MIA Breeders Plate Final (1758m) at Lin Gordon Paceway.
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Coelli has the favourite, Realnspectacular, as he attempts to win the Riverina's richest race for the very first time.
The group three classic for two-year-olds is Coelli’s hometown feature race. He ran second in 2017 with Man Hands and is determined to go one better with her half sister.
“It’s everything. It’s the race I want,” Coelli said.
“Ever since I started breeding them. Every time we would break a yearling in, I wanted to get them ready for the Plate and when 90 per cent don’t come up, you start to think of R0s at Coolamon.
“From day one with this one, I thought she could be the one for it. She’s so natural and done things so easy right from the start.”
It is a family affair for the Coellis. The filly is trained by Terry Coelli Snr, who won the 1982 Breeders Plate as an owner with Bye Bye Park.
Grant Coelli, who bred the filly, races her with his uncle, Matt.
The filly is also a big hit with Coelli’s three daughters, who will lead the cheer squad decked out in Realnspectacular shirts.
Realnspectacular showed a devastating turn of foot on debut, flying home to win the second heat in impressive fashion.
It was enough for bookmakers to install the filly favourite for the final, ahead of unbeaten Victorian visitor, The Tiger Army.
Both have come up with second row draws for the final but Coelli is happy with that result.
“I’m really happy with the draw,” he said.
“She’s never been bustled out of the gate and I didn’t want this race to be the first time we have to. So I didn’t want to draw barrier one, where we would have had to push her out.
“I think there is enough speed on the front row that she’ll be able to possie up nicely and she should go pretty good.”
Blake Jones will take the drive on Realnspectacular, who is one of six pacers from the Leeton shire in the field.
The final will be run at 9.40pm after being postponed from Friday night due to extreme heat.
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