Argyle going OK but any takers for staying up ‘til 1.25am to watch him debut in Queensland?

Trainer Mark Dux is expecting Argyle to acquit himself well when he makes his Sunshine State debut but he stops short of urging his New Zealand owners to stay up until 1.25am on Sunday morning to watch him.

The three-year-old runs in the 10th race, the Group III A$31,768 Yearling Sale Classic (2138m), drawn a little awkwardly in five against what Dux describes as nice, but not top line three-year-olds.

Dux has had Argyle for about four weeks and is still feeling his way with the Lincoln Farms’ horse who accredited himself pretty well on a four-start Victorian campaign, winning first-up at Melton and running a second there last start on October 8.

“I’ve just been poking along with him since he arrived from Melbourne. He’s coming along well and worked OK on Tuesday.

“I don’t mind him. At this stage he’s not as good as Nemo (Captain Nemo) or Tommy (Tommy Lincoln), but then he’s only lightly raced and he seems to keep getting better.

“This looks like a nice race for him to start off in - he’s the highest rated. They’re not world beaters, not the best three-year-olds, but they’re OK.”

Dux says, from the draw, he’ll be instructing driver Nathan Dawson to handle Argyle a bit quietly early.

He expects Chantal Turpin’s pair to speed to the top, Pete McMullen crossing to the early lead on Awaywego then probably handing up to stablemate Alta Revelry.

“The small field suits us - we don’t have to bustle him early - and he can come out nicely and hopefully get a trail midfield.

“If they roll along he should be thereabouts at the finish.”

Tommy Lincoln runs into strong opposition in Saturday night’s Queensland Cup. PHOTO: Dan Costello.Strong Cup line-up

Earlier in the night - at 11.52pm NZ time - Tommy Lincoln tackles a strong line-up in the Group II A$53,000 Queensland Cup (2138m), Dux not expecting him to be able to beat the favourites including Turn It Up and Blacksadance.

“It will be tough for him to win. He’s not far off those horses but he can’t do quite as much work as they can. If he runs top four or five I’d be really happy.”

Dux says Mathew Neilson will probably roll forward with Tommy from gate four.

“We can’t cross the one (Mach Da Vinci) and I expect his stablemate Turn it Up to come across and take over.

“We’ll more than likely get cover though. Blacksadance should come and we could get one-one or one-two cover. And the way he’s finishing off his races, he won’t be far away.

“He’s settling much better, that’s been his biggest downfall. The other night if he’d been behind (leader) Blacksadance, instead of three back, who knows what might have happened. I’m not saying we would have beaten him, but we would have been a lot closer.”

As it was, Tommy Lincoln closed to within 1.9 metres of Blacksadance in the Group III Be Good Johnny Sprint, running past Mach Da Vinci to grab the A$5336 second prize.

Dux also has Captain Nemo entered in the third race but, as first emergency, he looks unlikely to get a start.

“Even from that bad alley I’d have expected him to race OK. His first-up fourth was terrific. He just went a bit too hard down the back, got a bit keen, and ran out of petrol. But I was real happy with him.

“He’ll run on Tuesday instead.”