ROB'S SHOUT - A SHORT BREAK FOR CELEBRATION. ANOTHER LONG HAUL AHEAD!

By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, September 13, 2012

Robert Heathcote is the leading racehorse trainer in Brisbane. 'Rob's Shout' - the personal blog of the multi-premiership and Group 1 winning trainer will appear every Thursday on HRO.

Hello once again,

It’s been a good week for the stable with the recent Racing Queensland awards night which saw our little stable star Buffering take out the 'Horse of the Year' award.

I am very proud of his achievement and the fact that he is ‘yet' to win at the highest level really does show the respect the judges must have had for him to beat out no less than three other Queensland horses who have won at Group 1 level for the number one horse gong of the year.

I guess it's already well documented that the little Buff only just went down narrowly to Hay List in the Newmarket at Flemington and then he was cruelly robbed of his best opportunity of gaining a Group 1 when he got a stone bruise on the eve of the BTC Cup. He then to come back with great courage to run second in the Doomben 10,000 and the Stradbroke.

Mind you, it was still an awesome buzz running second to Hay List on the magical day at Flemington in the big sprint and to come oh so close to Sea Siren in the 10,000 after the hoof dramas was very memorable.

The courage he displayed to very nearly emulate the old marvel Rough Habit and nearly win the Straddie with 58 off a wide gate and sitting three deep was evident by the amount of accolades he received for his effort.

Buffering is now a five-year-old and with only the 26 race starts under his belt. I feel he is now getting to his peak.

If not for some bad luck, he may well have already climbed to the top of that Group 1 ladder, but we are quietly confident he can indeed get that much deserved Group 1 win.

I have no doubt that until Buffering is a Group 1 winner in his own right, both the owners and I will feel that it’s still ‘job unfinished.’

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It was a fantastic evening of celebration for many of the Buffering owners
with plenty to cheer about … but maybe a few vino's too many.

I know, in my own case, I had a few glasses (bottles) too many, but that was as much to do with celebrating the great return to racing from Solzhenitsyn earlier in the day than the awards night itself.

Lesson learned for me now is that when it comes to having to make a speech, best to have all the faculties working cohesively together. (My apologies to those to whom I spoke a lot of garbled nonsense).

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I am immensely proud to have been awarded the Queensland Trainer of the Year and the silver plaque now hangs proudly on my office wall next to last year's award!

The question has often been asked to me … what actually was my highlight for the year?

I have little hesitation in saying the win of Woorim in the time honoured Oakleigh Plate against such a high quality sprint field as well as the exciting manner in which he won … treasured memories for sure!

The metro Premiership win made it four-in-a-row for me. Already this year is a great contest with John and Tony's stables firing on all cylinders.

Whilst it is a nice feather in the cap to win awards, Pete Moody’s achievements with Black Caviar will always be a reminder that there will always be something
more to which you can aspire.

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Just a brief word on the big run from 'Solzhie' last week.

Yes, I also had my heart in my mouth halfway through the race when he was ten lengths off the pace and seemingly under pressure in his comeback race!

Once he picked up the bit coming past the 600 I then knew he was here to race and in the end it seemed a soft win. The time was quick, no doubt set up by the breakneck early tempo, and it seems fair to say he was impressive.

I have long said he is a serious race-horse and whilst I am under no illusion how tough it will be for him over the next six weeks, I am sure he can race well.

Of course he will have to travel well which is never easy. This factor has brought a lot of horses undone in the past, but he is such a lovely laid back character, he does seem to have the right demeanor to take it all in his stride.

Ha, a few have joked with me that it is indeed an unrealistic dream to even consider the Cox Plate but I say hey, dreams are free and if he was to pull out a couple of blinders in the Sir Rupert Clarke and the Toorak … well, you just never know.

To be honest, the race that I think will be ideal for him is the Emirates over the mile on the last day of the Spring carnival!

The big horse has pulled up well from the run and he will now fly down to Melbourne on the 25th with his stable mates Buffering and Excellantes.

Fingers crossed we can keep the 'Big Russian' sound and healthy for his trip to 'Mexico'!

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I will be giving the two sprinters a gallop at Doomben on Saturday between races 1 and 2.

I will work Buff and Excellantes over a 1000m with a solid final 600.

I am happy where they are in terms of their current progress. In fact, I am a week or two ahead of schedule, but better that than the opposite!

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As I have said in earlier blogs, my stable is a little light on for Saturday Metro quality runners this season as we go through a rebuilding phase, so we only have the one runner in town this week.

Yes, that's unusual for the stable compared with most Saturdays, but that's the way it is for now anyway as we strive to elevate a number of runners up to the Saturday town level ratings!

Not easy and a bit frustrating for us after the last four years but we still have enough to make our presence felt for the year

No doubt John and Tony will have plenty of punches to throw at each other though to keep it interesting at the top of the table!

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In closing, really sad to see the passing of Whobe through the week!

What a champion he was and what great joy he brought to so many in his career.

RIP old fella. You were a champion in my eyes and $3.2 mill is testimony to that!

Regards,
Robert

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