Price stable grinning ahead of NZ assignment for Speak The Truth

By Jordan Gerrans

The team behind NZ-bound pacer Speak The Truth have declared they are keen to showcase what Queensland standardbred breeding has to offer in the $NZ 1 million Race By Grins at Cambridge on Friday week.

The Shannon Price-prepared speedster is one of three Australian pacers who will make the trip across the ditch for the showpiece event.

The 50-year-old trainer had a number of options with her Grand Circuit-level pacer and is smiling to dodge fellow Queensland star Leap To Fame during the international assignment.

She also could have taken him across the country to the $1.25 million Group 1 Nullarbor in Western Australia.

Speak The Truth boasts the quickest mile rate ever recorded for a QBRED pacer in Australia, which he posted at Menangle in March when he went 1:48.8.

According to Racing Queensland’s records, that is the fastest time recorded by a QBRED in Australia in the history of the sport.

While the Price team have their eyes on the juicy prize money on offer in NZ, they are also looking forward to showing what Queensland-bred pacers have to offer on the big stage.

“Being a QBRED horse, he is representing all of Queensland,” Price said.

“I have had quite a few people say to me that they will be watching and cheering so he will have the weight of Queensland behind him.

“It is a big thing for this horse to go to another state – let alone another country – to take on their best horses. He is a QBRED at heart so hopefully we can do everyone proud.”

QBRED is regarded as the nation’s premier harness breeding incentive bonus scheme, delivering over $4 million in additional returns for breeders and owners of harness horses bred and racing in Queensland.

Price has long been aided by assistant trainer Scott Miller who drives the five-year-old gelding in the majority of his track work.

Like Price, Miller is proud to see a locally bred pacer on the Grand Circuit stage on a consistent basis.

Speak The Truth was enormous in the recent Miracle Mile, finishing just over five metres behind Leap To Fame in the time-honoured Group 1.

“It is a great thrill for us, him being a QBRED horse and being the fastest QBRED horse ever bred,” Miller said.

“We have had great Queensland-bred horses so to be a part of that and show the other countries what Australia has to offer is special.

“This shows that Queensland is doing a great job breeding horses and we are really lifting the mark.

“It is a great thrill to represent Queensland and have an actual QBRED horse that is going to do it.”

It is a long and strenuous process to get the star pacer from Price’s South East Queensland barn to Cambridge for the much-anticipated slot race.

He trialled smartly on Tuesday at headquarters in the Sunshine State before floating to Sydney where he will remain for a couple of days before flying to NZ.

There are plenty of other checks, balances and tests that Speak The Truth needs to clear before he even gets on the plane.

From there, he is off to champion harness man Barry Purdon’s property before the rich race on Friday.

Price thinks her gelding’s Miracle Mile form should stand up well in the Race By Grins with Leap To Fame remaining at Tamborine in Queensland.

“The Kiwis will be hard to beat on their home ground,” Price said.

“It is a big thing to be going to another country and taking them on, like they come to our country and take us on and beat us.

“We have got a big job ahead of us now to go over there and hopefully beat them.”

Speak To Truth won through to free for all company with his most recent win at Albion Park in late March.

He missed a glut of racing through his three-year-old campaign as the upcoming NZ assignment will be just his 30^th of his career.

To be competitive in Grand Circuit events when the horse was not yet a free for all pacer is a serious achievement, Price believes.

The team think the best is still yet to come with their boom gelding with regular reinsman Adam Sanderson suggesting he will not reach his peak for another year or so.

Sanderson was smiling with Speak The Truth’s trial performance on Tuesday as he went 1:53.5 in the 1660-metre trial.

“He is never going to be a horse that runs away from them, he never has,” Miller said.

“He has always been one of those ones – even in his track work – that does what he has to.

“Even though he did not win by very far recently, Adam said he was still feeling well.”

With Speak The Truth’s imminent NZ trip, it will mean that he will not compete during the upcoming Queensland Constellations.

He is likely to have a few runs in NZ, come back to Brisbane for a spell before returning to NZ later this year.

“He’ll stay for the Taylor Mile and Messenger the couple of weeks after the Grins, too,” Price said.

“It makes sense when you’re going that far and he’s still on the up so it’s good to have some other targets.

“We’re looking very seriously at taking him back for the NZ Cup in November, too.

“In fact, I’ve tentatively got some stabling booked in at Christchurch. I know it means we’ll probably bump into Leap To Fame as it seems he’s being set for the NZ Cup as well, but so be it.

“If we target the NZ Cup, he’ll have a good spell after these NZ races and miss the Queensland winter features. And, if he goes to the NZ Cup, we wouldn’t bring him back and go to the Inter Dominion, either.”

Speak The Truth is rated as the third favourite and $5 chance in the Race By Grins as of Thursday afternoon.