THE HRO NEWSFEED - JANUARY 4, 2019

By Graham Potter | Friday, January 4, 2019

Trainer Barry Lockwood’s win with Fiery Heights in the Listed Falvelon Quality at Doomben last Saturday … the prize for the win included a wildcard entry into the Magic Millions Snippets Handicap on January 12 … was the latest in a line of recent successes for the stable.

This is not the first time the wily trainer has used the Falvelon Quality to launch a challenge at the Magic Millions. In December 2016, the Lockwood trained Hidden Pearl won the Listed Falvelon Quality in a record time for the Eagle Farm 1000 metres of 56.59 seconds, leading all of the way to beat Viddora ($7) by three-quarters-of-a-length.

"That was the plan all along as we were after a wild card invitation to the Magic Millions," Lockwood said at the time, but that plan did not end well with something going amiss with Hidden Pearl on the big day where she trailed in last.

Two years later the same plan has come together. Lockwood will be hoping for a better result this time around.

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That previously mentioned Hidden Pearl-Viddora Falvelon Quality result in 2016 serves as yet another reminder of the fact that you just never know when you are well off in racing or what lies around the corner.

The winner there, Hidden Pearl, would only have another three runs for Lockwood after her Magic Millions misadventure and another two runs for trainer Mark Mason before time was called on her career in February 2018.

The runner-up Viddora, on the other hand, has gone from strength to strength compiling a race record which currently stands at nine wins (including Group 1 successes in the Winterbottom and the Moir) and eight places from twenty-nine starts with stake earnings of $2.6 million. Viddora also climbed high enough to find a slot in the 2018 edition of The Everest.

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Trainers don’t come more astute than Barry Lockwood and his regular runs of success clearly comes from having a happy stable where the preparation and the placing of his runners comes with a touch of precision.

That is one of the reasons why Lockwood is not enamoured with the Brisbane Racing Club’s plan to demolish the on-course stables at Eagle Farm to make room for a bigger float carpark. Lockwood and Danny Bougoure are the trainers affected by this decision.

The plan is to relocate the stables of these two trainers to Nudgee Road. In some circumstances a change of scenery can be a good thing for racehorses but, if they are moved from an environment in which they are content, it could take them a while again before they settle down … and the disruption of routine would not only be for the horses.

That proposed Nudgee Road scenario would effectively mean that the Lockwood and Bougoure stables would be off course and, as such, they would then need to float horses to the track each day thus incurring costs which they did not have before and they would possibly need to have more staff on duty to help with the demands of the new schedule. The BRC has said the trainers will be compensated for the move and will be no worse off financially than before.

So, will Lockwood go to Nudgee Road? With no specific date set for the move Lockwood is keeping all of his options open. “I don’t know where I will go,” Lockwood told The Courier-Mail. The Gold Coast is an option … or maybe even interstate!”

Interesting times behind the scenes at the Farm.

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Trainer Steve Tregea is a man of few words and seldom shows his emotion. He wouldn’t even use a cliché like the catch-phrase, ‘I’ll let his horses do the talking for me’ … but, in essence, that is just what they do.

The fact that he had three live chances in the Listed Bernborough Handicap at Doomben on December 29, a race he won with Bergerac, underlined the inherent quality of his small but strong stable … yet the stable generally continues to fly under the radar only to be recognised after the fact.

Today Tregea saddled two runners at the Sunshine Coast. Both won. Angel Dane ($9) and Kopella ($6.50) were the runners that saluted in familiar red and white silks. It almost brought a smile to the man’s face!

Oh, and one other thing that Tregea is doing quietly. He is steadily advancing the career of young apprentice rider Michael Murphy, who brought Bergerac home for the stable and who also piloted Kopella at the Sunshine Coast.

All credit to Tregea for his training expertise and for his encouragement of a young talent.

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