ROB'S SHOUT - SOLZHENITSYN PROVES ONCE AGAIN THAT HE IS A SERIOUS RACEHORSE

By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, September 19, 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 appears exclusively on HRO.

Whilst I am not too sure that most would know that Solzhenitsyn was in fact a Nobel Literature laureate awarded in 1970 for his eminent works and his tireless criticisms of communist totalitarianism, I am pretty sure now that most in racing do now know that his name-sake is a serious racehorse.

His return to racing last week was nothing short of brilliant and whilst he didn’t win, he lost no admirers with his gutsy second in the Group 2 Theo Marks at Rosehill last Saturday.

It was never the pre-race plan to come out of the gates hot and serve it up to Rain Affair.

Jason Collett later apologized for making a minor error on him by clicking him up a touch which fired him up more than we wanted. I would have preferred the Big Russian to be in the second or third line of horses in the run, similar to where the winner came from, which is his best racing pattern.

That will be the plan when he races next in the Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke at Caulfield on Saturday week.

Solzhenitsyn ran third in the race last year. I’d expect him to carry more weight this year. The handicapper has suggested 57.5 … which isn’t too bad as a Group 1 winner.

Michael Rodd was to be the likely rider but his commitments to the Kavanagh yard may see him on December Draw so we thought may have to go with James McDonald who has also won on Solzhie.

Found out McDonald is staying in Sydney so we tried to get Nash to ride him!

Yep, good stuff for us with Nash Rawiller’s manager just confirming he will ride Solzhenitsyn in the Group 1.

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Solzhenitsyn has travelled down to his new spring digs at Flemington and Melissa tells me he has settled in like he never left the joint.

My gut feeling is the horse is in the best condition he’s ever been in but to be, honest, to achieve success on the big stage in Melbourne in the spring they have to be at the top of their game.

Yeah, ok, so we are still dreaming a bit by making the next Cox Plate pay up but hey, I learned a long time ago that dreams are one of the few things in racing which are free.

The main plan at this stage is the Rupert Clarke, then the Gr 1 Toorak which he won last year and then onto the valley for the Crystal Vase which is on Cox Plate day but gee, if he happened to kick a big goal in the Toorak, it sure would be tempting to have a crack at the silver platter!

Let’s see how things play out over the next few weeks!

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Only a week to go and our ‘Little Bulldog’ Buffering gets to rock ‘n’ roll again.

Gee it only seems like last week we were lamenting another Group 1 2nd placing in the Stradbroke but time passes quickly and we are ready to ‘get it on’ again.

I have him where I want him now. Buffering has had the two solid trials and last Wednesday I took him to the races at Doomben for an exhibition gallop. My main reason for that was to just have the champ get the feeling of a race-day once again.

His work out on the course proper was low intensity but still sharp and focused.

Buffering will now fly to Melbourne on Tuesday night at about midnight. His final serious bit of work will be on Tuesday morning which should top him off perfect for the race on the Friday night at Moonee Valley.

I have no doubt it is going to be a monumental task for Buff with the likes of Bell Sprinter, Epaulette, Snitzerland and a host of other crack sprinters likely to be in the field.

We do know one thing though, little Buff is gonna give 100% as he always does.

Another big weekend of racing ahead for us on the Eastern seaboard. Some exciting footy matches in all codes so yeah, a smorgasbord of entertainment ahead.

Enjoy.

Cheers,

Robert

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