Trainer Tony Ball is enthusiastic about two hopes for Taree on Tuesday

"Mate, if Grand Horizon's right on the day, she'll win," Ball said. "She's spot on for the race, she's just ready to go first-up.

"She had a soft barrier trial and ran third and has worked well at the track. She's had a jump-out on top of that. She looks as good as when I had her to win the Big Maiden at Grafton, at her last start. She's pretty talented and she'll be very competitive in this race."

The Big Maiden, on July 13, was one of those lucrative maiden events - worth $45,000 on that occasion - that attract very competitive fields of horses trying to break through for their first win.

Ball also has Richattack in the race, coming off two consecutive seconds.

"Richattack only just got beat in both of those races - a Benchmark 50 and a 58," Ball said. "Back to a Class 1 here and she'll be very hard to beat because she's race-fit."

The Rising Star series is for apprentice jockeys and Grand Horizon will be ridden by Mollie Fitzgerald, who is apprenticed to Ball. Richattack will be ridden by Amy McLucas.

McLucas is the equal leader in the series, with Ben Osmond. They each have 17 points. Fitzgerald is third, on 14 points. The series finishes next month.

EASILY the richest race on the card at the Taree races meeting on Tuesday is for horses that haven't won a race yet and astute trainer Brett Partelle is convinced his galloper Lara's Laulet is at least as good a chance as any in the field of breaking through.

The four-year-old mare's five-race career so far has been run at provincial and midweek city levels and the drop to country class for the $50,000 Laurieton Super Maiden Plate over 1007 metres is a big part of her appeal here.

Lara's Laulet has recorded seconds at Gosford and Hawkesbury and a third at Gosford and has not finished worse than fifth in a race.

She is going first-up into this event and without a barrier trial after not having raced since mid-July, but Wyong-based Partelle says fitness will not be an issue.

It will be the mare's first run for Partelle after a change of trainers and there wouldn't be any point in him making the switch to country class with her and identifying a lucrative maiden race as a first-up target unless she was ready to perform at a high level in it.

"I'm very happy with her," Partelle said. "Obviously it's her first start for us and her gallops since she's been here have been impressive.

'I like how she has put on about 30 kilos and matured and strengthened up. She's lovely and free in her action and there's a real glow to her.

"We wanted to keep her nice and fresh and bubbly for this race and that's the reason we haven't had a trial. I wanted to keep the spring in her step. The 1000 metres suits her very well to kick off first-up. She's been bouncing around in the yard and looks very well.

"She's done plenty of work and is forward enough to run a strong 1000 without a trial. She's ready to be very competitive in a race like this."

Lara's Laulet competed over 1000 metres in her debut race at Gosford on December 31, 2022. She finished off well for a second to One Destiny in a set weights maiden for three-year-olds.

One Destiny has since won another four races, including two at the provincials and one at a Friday night meeting at Canterbury.

Partelle accepted with two other runners at Taree, but is not getting carried away with their chances.

"Perfect Style is getting near the end of his racing career and has drawn wide, so he may not run," he said. "Ozpharoah is a bit of an enigma. He's shown ability, but has been quite frustrating to train."

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