Long lay-off puts Grey in hot seat
STEPHEN Brown produced a training masterstroke to get seven-year-old Harbour Grey to win first-up at Geelong in the last race of the day.
The lightly-raced Masterofcraftsman gelding has had just one run in the last 11 months — a disappointing fifth at Morphettville back in June.
The former Flemington trainer said he wasn’t pleased with the horse over the wetter months, so he sent him for a spell and set him for a return ahead of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
“He went to Adelaide and had a run but I wasn’t happy with him, so I tipped him back out after Adelaide and this was the result,” Brown said.
“He just wasn’t doing well through winter so I tipped him out and put him on the water walker and now he’s back.”
Gun hoop Mark Zahra brought the grey gelding back in the field from barrier 14, which had Brown concerned mid-race, but he flashed down the outside of the track like Chautauqua to pip favourite I Did It Again with 61.5kg on his back.
“I think Mark had something to do with (the win),” Brown said.
“When he went back, I thought, ‘Oh I don’t know if you’re doing the right thing’ because he’s a bit of an on-pacer but he got the chocolates.”
A return to Flemington looms for Harbour Grey, who now boasts four wins and 10 placings from 23 starts.
He contested the 1400m greys race at Flemington last spring and ran second to Tribal Wisdom and Brown said they’d head there again.
The veteran trainer no longer trains out of Flemington.
“We’re up at Seymour now, we’ve got our own property there and have stables and the track,” he said.
“We’re right out of Flemington now. We’ve got about 12 in work.”