LEE and Shannon Hope again have Caulfield Cup ambitions for Folding Gear...

LEE and Shannon Hope again have Caulfield Cup ambitions for Folding Gear, which is already in work for the Caulfield signature race.

 

Hope said he’s buoyed by how Folding Gear has developed and matured as well as the formline through Mr O’Ceirin and Jet Away.

 

“He looks good, but he’s still got to come up. He’s got to find two or three lengths, but I think he can,” Hope said.

 

“He’s a good, tough horse. The Caulfield Cup last year was the hardest one in years.”

 

Hope said that Folding Gear would probably have to again win a race like the Naturalism that catapulted him into the Caulfield Cup last year.

 

“It’s not beyond him,” Hope said.

 

Folding Gear finished seventh, beaten three lengths by French champion Dunanden in the Caulfield Cup.

 

Hope produced Total Pursuit to score a comfortable win in the Perri Cutten Handicap today at Sportingbet Park.

 

While Total Pursuit was beaten 10 lengths in a 58 rating race at Cranbourne last start, Hope noted that the horse carried 60kg that day and dropped eight kilos today and that proved telling.

 

“I didn’t think he could win as easily as that, but I still gave him a chance,” Hope said.

 

“Eight kilos is a lot and he’s not a very big horse.”