ROB’S SHOUT - A WEEK OF GOOD RESULTS BOOSTS STABLE CONFIDENCE

By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, April 7, 2011

Robert Heathcote is the leading racehorse trainer in Brisbane. 'Rob's Shout' - the personal blog of the premiership winning trainer will appear every Thursday on HRO.

It's coming to a pretty exciting time of the year and our the confidence around the stable has received a real boost of late with some of the recent successes on the track!

Just a week ago we were fortunate enough to win the time-honoured Toowoomba Cup with a stable favourite in Humma.

That win took his earnings to over $400 000 so he has done a fantastic job for his connections and the stable.

He's been down on form for quite a while due to a few soundness issues, but his confidence has slowly returned which culminated in the Cup win.

I have had a few cracks at winning the cup over the years with my previous best a fourth a long time ago with Dannemora. It is a good race and I am very proud to have won it now!

The club has had its share of media coverage these past few months. They did a great job and ran a very successful race day which was well attended!

I have never been real a fan of Cushion track racing but I have always said that it does have a definite place on our racing calendar and the way the schedule fell, it was worth a shot with a $100 000 on the line as prize-money.

It's always a little bit hit-and-miss whether horses will handle the synthetic track. Fortunately Humma did so and with the good prize money on offer it was definitely worth the punt for the owners to see if Humma would handle the track conditions!

As Kevin Costner once said in a 'Field of Dreams' … "build it and they will come.” Same here with what is on offer. Put up the good prize money and they will come!

Sure, it wasn't a vintage quality field but the race is there to be won. You should try winning one. Prime quality field or not, it's never easy!

The riding plans worked out by Larry Cassidy and myself were unconventional compared to turf track racing, but they paid dividends for us on this occasion!

The plan was to sit wide/deep with the horse as for some reason they can do this on the cushion track, seemingly without any disadvantage.

Humma sat three to four wide for the entire trip so, with the 58 kgs, it was a top effort.

It was a very satisfying win for the stable as even a couple of his owners were beginning to doubt if the old boy would ever see the winners stall again after such a lengthy absence!

I was happy to prove them wrong!

During the race I am sure there were many who supported him would have been tearing their hair out and I know a couple of the owners were as well to see him facing the breeze during the running of the cup.

Once Larry asked him for his effort at the top of the straight, I knew he would kick as I had him nice and fit which is a pre-requisite for racing on the cushion track.

The old bugger has pulled up well so whilst I am not getting to carried away with thoughts of scaling new carnival heights with Humma, a race like the Rocky Cup and maybe the lesser quality carnival races, such as the Tatts and Grafton Cups etc could suit him and he would have a go if his form warrants it?

I am planning to make it three-in-a-row with Our Lukas for the Ipswich Cup so that's off limits!

Nah, just kidding! We will race where-ever I think Humma can be competitive.

Toowoomba will always invoke thoughts and memories of the sadly missed Stathi Katsidis and I was delighted to see the statue of SK at the track along with a race in his honour.

Humma’s cup win was dedicated to the memory of Stathi who will always remind me of how senseless some things can be in life and of course … death!

It was also a bit of a sombre drive through the Lockyer Valley and up the range for my first time since the floods wreaked so much carnage on the area.

The glow of Humma's cup triumph made the journey home quite a lot more enjoyable!

The good day on Thursday was followed up with another good day for the stable with the winning double we achieved with Red God and Excellantes at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

Red God is in a nice vein of form at present enhancing the nice opinion I have always had of him as a three-year-old, but he needed to mentally mature to reach his current level.

He still has a very long way to go to be a realistic carnival participant, but he is still on the up and we remain hopeful but realistic.

It was an excellent ride from Paul Hamersley also who is very much an underrated Brisbane jockey!

You will see him on more of my horses!

Excellantes is one who may be able to figure during the upcoming carnival.

He only won by the slenderest of margins but he came off a wide gate, crossed them easily and just held on.

I think he is still a bit fat also so he will take further improvement from that run. I also think he will be better suited when he is on top of the ground.

(I would like to give a bit of credit to the track guys at Eagle Farm last Saturday as they did a good job with the track holding together surprisingly well for the day. It looked a bit gloomy opening up as a Heavy 8, but it did a good job on the day. Further evidence I guess that the Eagle Farm track races well enough if no rain falls during the meeting?)

I have away had a very good opinion of Excellantes from early on, but barrier 18 tends to dull one’s confidence from the 1200m start.

I discussed it with his jockey, the in-form Damian Browne as they describe him, but he's always been in-form in my opinion.

We decided to come out hot from the gates and try and cross them or sit outside the lead. I was amazed to see him smoke it from the gates and lead by three.

That was electrifying gate speed which is a huge asset.

Brownie’s timing to go for him at exactly the right time in the straight won us the race as he was understandably stopping after his early work and, as I said, I believe I still have him a bit fat!

Excellantes may even have been a shade lucky as my very, very good filly Fillydelphia may have made it interesting if she had of got an uninterrupted run up the straight.

Unfortunate they had to race each other there but they are now on separate paths in to the winter carnival.

I see David Fowler (in his blog) rates Fillydelphia as a genuine carnival prospect and I concur with his thoughts. She will be so much better suited to the set
weights races which are coming up next for her.

She is a talented filly and she raced a touch fresh the other day so she will benefit greatly from that run.

Her next run is on Saturday week in the Listed 1350 where she drops 4kg’s and the 'boys' all go up in weight!

Another to race well on Saturday from my stable was Heartshaker who has now run three consecutive second placing's in town, so his hoof is very much on the till.

He is the first foal to race out of the former top group winning mare in Chenar by the all conquering Queensland sire in Show A Heart.

Heartshaker is now doing a good job after some early career injuries when he started his career down in Sydney!

It certainly does give the stable plenty of confidence and it gets us buzzing a bit when the team is getting the job done on the racetrack.

The weather has played such a major part in the lives of so many this past six months so it's encouraging that we are getting over all of the disruptions caused by the uncertainty the weather has created and we are preparing for the carnival with quite a few horses in good form.

More good stable news with the rapid improvement of our little star in Buffering. He's got his plates back on and we over the worst of his hoof problems and we are confident he can be racing again soon.

It's a pleasure to see a new addition to the HRO website with David Fowler joining myself and Larry Cassidy sharing their thoughts on industry issues!

Larry is a world class jockey as his record shows and David is a very insightful racing and form analyst and a top race caller!

I am in esteemed company!

Good health and, of course, good luck if you are having a punt!

Cheers,
Robert.

More articles