BALLISTIC BOY SURVIVE A SCARE IN THE STARTING GATES BUT MISSES OUT ON AN IMPORTANT RUN

By Graham Potter | Sunday, January 3, 2021

It could have been nasty for both horse and rider but, in the end, it appears that both the Chris Anderson trained Ballistic Boy and jockey Matthew McGillivray came off no worse for wear after an unfortunate incident in the barriers which led to well preformed son of Smart Missile having to be withdrawn from the Magic Millions Shootout.

McGillivray was cleared of any injury and was able to compete his riding engagements.

“Ballistic Boy looks to be ok,” said Anderson after the horse had been returned to the tie-up stalls. “I guess the only thing that will tell us if there is anything there will be time … we’ll know over the next couple of days.”

The big carrot in the Shootout was the wildcard ‘exemption from the ballot’ entry into the $1 million Subzero on Magic Millions Day.

So, the setback for Ballistic Boy did not only relate to any possible latent injury concerns, but also translated to an interrupted preparation as he has now missed an important scheduled run just when he looked to have gained really telling momentum in his three runs since resuming from a five-month layoff.

In those three runs, Ballistic Boy had finished second first-up, just a length behind Red Chase (Saturday’s Vo Rogue winner) and then won his last two starts in a measured climb in distance from 1350 to 1640m and then what would have been 2206m in the Shootout.

And that missed run brings pressure to bear on Ballistic Boy via a revised schedule.

So where does that leave the six-time winner now?

‘We’re hoping … we’ve got a trial or a jump out on Tuesday,” said Anderson, “and we will nominate him for The Wave next Saturday over 1800m at the Gold Coast.

If he comes through that, all going well we’ll back up a week later in the Subzero on Magic Million’s Day.

“It’s not ideal, but you’ve just got to cop it on the chin and get on with it,” concluded Anderson.