Racing: Trainer pursues notable double in Oakbank feature

MELBOURNE - Seven-year-old Robeeca will be trying to give trainer Grant Young a rare Great Eastern Steeplechase double today after the former jockey won the Oakbank feature on Bruskin 10 years ago.

Young has been training horses for three years and he is optimistic that Robeeca, his first Great Eastern runner, will acquit himself well on the big stage.

"He has been set for this race the whole way through and he wasn't meant to come on until now," Young said.

"I think he is the sort of horse that has to be wound up to be running consistently all the time and that is not what we wanted to do.

"We we wanted him to be fully wound up for Oakbank and that is where we have him."

Robeeca, who was placed in the 2008 SA Grand National Hurdle, was a dual hurdle winner last season but has stepped up to the steeplechasing this season.

At his only race start over the bigger jumps he fell at Oakbank last month but has since finished second in a jumps school at the track which Young said had given the horse a lot of confidence.

"I think it has really brought him on."

"He is a totally different horse now and lot more relaxed at the track."

He said Robeeca worked impressively last Thursday and all the signs were encouraging that he would run out the 4950m of today's Great Eastern.

"He is not far away from being 110 per cent," Young said.

- AAP