O'Brien wants Caravan rolling early

Trainer Danny O’Brien has revealed that he would like to see Caravan Rolls On in the first half of the 2014 Geelong Cup field in the early stages of the race at Geelong tomorrow.

Caravan Rolls On has generally been positioned towards the tail of the field in his four race starts in Australia to date, but the Hernando-entire drew favorably at the Geelong Cup barrier draw yesterday and O’Brien told Racing Ahead that he is hopeful jockey Craig Williams will be able to settle the imported stayer closer to the speed when he jumps from barrier two.

“I hope that he can use that gate,” O’Brien said.

“It is a good draw to have there at Geelong and you would like to think that he could make some use of it.

“If he was able to posy up on the fence in the first half of the field that would be great.”

Caravan Rolls On started his 2014 Spring Racing Carnival campaign with a fair performance over an the unsuitable distance of 1600 metres at Moonee Valley on September 6 and he had no luck in running when fourth behind Like A Carousel in the Listed Harry White Classic (2400m) at Sandown on September 27.

O’Brien admits that Caravan Rolls On will be better suited when he steps up in trip for races like the Carnival Handicap (2800m) on Melbourne Cup Day and the listed Sandown Cup (3200m) on Zipping Classic Day, but he is happy with his form heading into the Geelong Cup on Wednesday.

"He is in great order," O’Brien said.

"I didn’t think that we got a real line on him at Sandown, it was just a very messy race and he had the messiest run of anything in it.

"He did stick on well in the last 100, but it was certainly very hard to get a line on the horse.

"He is not a sharp horse.

"He is a genuine two mile staying horse and you are not going to see a turn-of-foot.

"We ran him the other day at the 2400 second-up and he has had three and a half weeks between runs, so he should be a little bit of the fresh side.

"I would even prefer if it was further than the 2400 tomorrow."

Story by Thomas Hackett, to view full HorseRacing.com.au story click here

Photo by Bruno Cannatelli, to view Bruno's website click here