BROWNIE'S BLOG: 'BART' BOUNCES BACK. TWO EXCITING PROSPECTS & A RIDER LEARNS A LESSON THE HARD WAY

By Damian Browne | Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Brownie’s Blog is the weekly personal blog of multiple Group 1 winning jockey Damian Browne. Here Brownie talks about a golden oldie who stole the show. He also celebrates the fact that Saturday’s feature race results at Caulfield confirmed that Queensland has at least two very exciting prospects in its racing ranks and he comments on how inexcusable jockey errors has its consequences. This is Brownie's Blog … exclusive to HRO.

It is always great to see older horses still getting the job done … although Black Heart Bart’s win in the Underwood Stakes wouldn’t have pleased many punters with a starting price of $101.

Black Heart Bart was actually retired in October last year and, once the idea of him making a comeback was floated, Black Heart Bart has to pass a series of vet checks, as well as come through an official trial, before he could be given the green light to resume a career which had already brought five Group 1 wins along with over $4 million in prize-money.

That was completed under the guidance of his new trainer Lindsay Smith and really earned his reward for all of the work he had done with the now nine-year-old when Black Heart Bart took home the $450 00 prize that the Underwood had on offer with Smith, in terms of an agreement he struck with the owners for getting Black Heart Bart back to racing, reportedly splitting the prize-money fifty-fifty with connections.

My guess is that Black Heart Bart was a horse that needed a lot of time spent on him which probably the bigger and more high-profile stables might not have been able to provide. Smith has obviously done that with an incentive to get Black Heart Bart back to the track knowing that if the results were to follow all of those involved would be big winners … and that is the way it has worked out.

Hats off to him.

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And, of course, it was a double comeback celebration with Bart’s old mate Brad Rawiller in the saddle.

It was also in October last year, around about the same time that Black Heart Bart retired, that Brad broke his neck in a fall at Cranbourne and so for their paths to come back and cross again and for them to win another Group 1 together I would imagine would have been particularly satisfying for Brad, not only to win a Group 1, but to do it on the old horse that he has had many successes on over the years.

One of the reports said the result was a surprise to everybody but Brad … and I can understand that. At any given time, he probably knew better than anybody else what Bart was capable of … particularly if the horse got back to a fit and healthy state.

Personally, $101 or not, I thought it was great to see.

Looks like both the Rawillers are back with a vengeance!

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Queenslanders had something to shout about in the big race features down south with the David Vandyke trained Alligator Blood keeping his unbeaten record intact by winning the Caulfield Guineas Prelude and the Tony Gollan trained Zoustyle finishing second in the Testa Rossa, only being run down in the final strides.

Zoustyle might not have got the win but it was a terrific run and it was great seeing the Queenslanders down there at Carnival time, standing up, doing the job and giving us all up here something to cheer about.

There was plenty of conjecture when David Vandyke first moved up to the Sunshine Coast that maybe he was giving away his opportunity to train good horses because many owners would prefer to have their horses based closer to the big race venues but, of course, David is a Group 1 winning trainer and it just shows if you are a good enough trainer you can do it from anywhere.

It was as good a reminder as he could have given anyone.

Maybe more horses will be heading his way now.

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It has been well documented that a young apprentice rider misjudged the winning post when in front at Toowoomba on Saturday and her actions were ruled to have cost her mount the race.

She got a month’s holiday for her trouble.

It won’t be much consolation to her but the fact is that far more experienced riders, all over the world, have made arguably far worse mistakes … like getting the number of laps wrong and having the whip out trying to win the race first time past the post when there is still another lap to go.

Be that as it may, it is a lesson for the young lady … obviously a hard lesson … but she will now realise that you have got to know exactly where the winning post is and you have to make sure you ride your horse out all the way to the line.

It is better to still be riding the horse out ten metres past the post than stopping riding before the line.

This is a responsibility for every individual rider … even for apprentices and those who are just starting out. It is homework they need to do and if their actions do compromise winning returns to owners, trainers and the public there are consequences.

The racing certainly is that she will not make the same mistake again.

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