ROB'S SHOUT - SOLZHIE HEADS SOUTH TO SYDNEY WHERE HE GETS TO PLAY WITH THE BIG GUNS
By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, March 21, 2013
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 from a somewhat drier south-east corner, although the weather is still a little bit unsettled. The weather man gave me a little scare the other night when he said there is a sixty percent chance of a wetter winter than normal! Ouch, we do not need that!
A term we often hear in racing is ‘Serious Racehorse’! There is of course no question this applies to the wonder mare who will no doubt go on her merry winning ways at Moonee Valley on Friday night.
Enough gets said about the great mare so I won’t add to that at this point, but if ever you could write a post-race report BEFORE the race is run, it’s probably about her!
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On Saturday at Rosehill we will also get to see plenty of ‘serious racehorses’ in action and how good a race does the Canterbury Stakes look like being?
Now this is a serious Group 1 race with Gai’s two superstars More Joyous and Pierro lining up along with Moody’s self-proclaimed second best horse in his yard in the form of Moment Of Change.
My stable is represented by Solzhenitsyn. He is serious racehorse in both ability and presence but it sure is gonna be tough to knock this lot off.
Realistically I don’t think it can happen in this race (Canterbury stakes). The by-product of winning a Group 1 race though, as Solzhie has done, is the fact that you pretty much only get to play against the big guns for the rest of their racing career.
That’s obviously not a bad thing but it sure makes winning more races a hell of a lot harder.
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The ‘Big Russian’ recently trialled brilliantly at Eagle Farm on the course proper so I am happy with where he is at going into the race on Saturday.
It is only a relatively small field, so I am hoping he can jump well and get travelling on the bit like I did in his recent trial.
I remember only too well his first-up run last prep when he was very short tomato sauce odds and he was off the bit and seemingly gone at the 600 until Brownie managed to wake him up and he stormed home for a soft win in the end.
We know this lot ain’t gonna be stopping so my bloke will need to be at his very best to pick up a cheque.
It won’t be the end of the world for us if he doesn’t weigh in on Saturday as he’s better suited over further … such as the 1500 of the George Ryder in two weeks and then the mile of the Doncaster in a month’s time.
The race I am keen to target though … and the one that looks like being his grand finale … is the Group 1 Doomben Cup at home during our winter carnival.
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Melissa went down to Sydney with Solzhie on Thursday afternoon.
The 12 hour float journey was pretty uneventful and the horse quickly settled into his new box at Randwick. I have purposefully chosen to travel him down as close to the race as possible.
Experience has taught us that’s the best option. Either a day before or about a week to nine days out. Fortunately he got stuck straight into his feed and it didn’t take too long for him to rehydrate himself drinking plenty.
That’s the key to successfully travelling horses, getting them to eat and drink as per normal if possible.
It will not be known exactly how well he has coped until after the race but all the signs are positive this far out from the race.
On Saturday it will be an early morning walk at Randwick and then the afternoon float ride to Rosehill for the huge race day!
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Solzheitsyn has won first up over the 1350 so the testing 1300 first up holds no fears for us.
I don’t mind flying under the radar to be honest with the three big guns taking all the limelight.
I will be satisfied to see him run a big race … picking up a decent cheque would simply be awesome! Like the old saying goes, ’you can’t win it if you don’t have a ticket in the raffle! I like the ticket I am holding though even if it probably will not be a winning one!
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Solzhenitsyn will be joined by his stable-mate, Buffering this time next week.
I gave Buff a solid trial last week and I was delighted with how he is coming along. I plan to give him another ‘serious’ grass jump out next Tuesday to ensure I have him spot on for his upcoming ‘date’ with Black Caviar in the TJ Smith Group 1 over 1200 on the 13th April.
I will float him down to Randwick next Thursday so he will have plenty of time to settle in before the big one.
I have slightly changed my thinking/training of Buffering for this prep as the two pre first-up trials will have him a lot harder for the first up run.
He has an excellent first up record with five wins and a third from his six first-uppers but he’s tended to fall away a bit after his first couple of runs. I wanted to have Buff a lot ‘harder’ as well as fresh for the first-up big one.
I will tell you if it’s worked in a couple of weeks’ time!
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Of course Black Caviar will more than likely target the same race and we will more than likely be running for second place again.
We have placed behind her on a few occasions so that won’t be anything new to us but we don’t plan to shy away from the challenge.
It’s going to be just the one start in Sydney for Buff and then back home for the Group 2 Victory stakes, a race he has won the past 2 years.
This will then lead him onto the Group 1 BTC Cup sprint against … yep, you guessed it, Black Caviar.
This is the race I think he was cruelly robbed of last year when he got the stone bruise 24 hours before the race … AAAaaarrrrggghhh … it’s still a painful memory but I think they call it character building?
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With all things going well, Buffering will then race in the Doomben 10 000, a race he was runner-up in last year.
Maybe he will go onto the Stradbroke, another race he was runner-up in last year but that will depend on the handicaps as much as how Buff is holding up!
Saturday should be exciting at Rosehill with a high quality support program to the feature races. I only have the one runner back home with Volkhere deserving an overdue win after a couple of close seconds at his recent races.
He is well and he can win if things can go his way.
Best of luck to you on the punt and good health.
Robert
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