Neil Evan's Canberra Community Chest Preview

A tough five-year-old who hasn’t raced since early July is set to return with a bang and claim Sunday’s feature Community Chest at Throughbred Park.

Mickey’s Medal, a sparingly raced son of Group 1 winner Brave Smash in the Annabel and Rob Archibald stable at Warwick Farm, looks ideally placed at good odds to claim the strongest edition so far of the Canberra spring feature over 1400m.

Connections are expected to take this option, despite the gelding also being accepted for a Benchmark 78 Hcp (1400m) at Saturday’s stand-alone Kembla meeting.

Mickey’s Medal was allotted a big weight, and drew a very wide gate for that race, which should be enough to convince the stable to head down the freeway to Canberra.

Mickey’s Medal capped a progressive campaign in winter with an even and unplaced effort in a Benchmark 88 Hcp over 1400m at Randwick.

Prior to that, though, he had won two straight at Rosehill on rain-affected ground over 1500m and up to BM 78 level before running home from further back as a rock solid $2.90 favourite to finish within a length of smart Thunderlips.

A smart galloper when on the fresh side, Mickey’s Medal has been given two easy trials in the lead-up, and gets his preferred soft surface, jumping from a middle barrier on the minimum 54 kg.

With a near 20 percent winning strike rate from 27 starts, the Community Chest could be a real springboard for Mickey’s Medal heading into summer, including a crack at the Group 2 The Ingham over 1600m at Randwick next month.

Fast becoming one of the non-metropolitan calendar highlights, the now $200K Community Chest run under Quality conditions has attracted another even and strong field after a record number of nominations were received.

Local charities and community groups each partner with a runner for a slice of the prize money, with the Ciaron Maher-trained Chorlton Lane charging home to win last year, and provide charity partner “Win the Day” with a $25K boost.

The 2025 edition won’t be an easy read. Apart from some lead-up rain, the rail is out 5m, so a wider trend could be in play by late in the meeting.

One of the bigger market watches will be lightly raced six-year-old Victoria Road who is second-up under top weight of 62kg for the Maher stable at Warwick Farm off a near two year break, although he may go to feature The Gong (1600m) at Kembla on Saturday.

Victoria Road felt the pinch resuming over a mile in black type carnival company at Randwick finishing well down the track, but coming back a furlong in trip via an easy trial, he’s a big improver.

Another intriguing runner is sparingly raced four-year-old Mayfair from the Bjorn Baker yard.

He drops sharply in class fourth-up after tackling some of the bigger races over the Sydney spring, including the Golden Eagle where he was beaten out of sight at huge odds, but a much improved showing came in a BM 94 over 1300m at Newcastle where he finished close-up behind the place-getters.

Throw in another Maher runner in exciting mare Snitzanova resuming off two trials, tough five-year-old Kintyre fifth-up for the Gary Portelli stable, and recent BM 88 (1400m) winner at Rosehill Sir Artie again for the Archibald yard, and it's by far the strongest edition depth-wise of the Community Chest.

Yet behind what should be a reasonable and consistent tempo, Mickey’s Medal can position up a few lengths off the speed, and off the fence, and be given his head from the 400m.

My Community Chest Tips:

1. MICKEY’S MEDAL

2. Mayfair

3. Kintyre

4. Sir Artie

5. Victoria Road

@NeilEvansmail

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