Winning now a priority for Toowoomba gelding
RACING: Whether it’s a new mental outlook or purely coincidental, life at the race track has never gone better for Toowoomba five-year-old Prioritise since returning from his recent Sydney road trip.
Prioritise last weekend notched his fourth successive city Saturday win after jumping up in distance to 2020 metres for the first time to cane his Doomben Open Handicap rivals.
That followed his previous Doomben success and twin Sunshine Coast victories — all over 1600 metres.
It’s not the first burst of winning form for the Rothesay gelding who trainer Steve Tregea has always held a good opinion of. His 23 career starts have now netted nine wins and $380,000 in prize money.
But the picket-fence of wins now next to his name is curiously timed after his Sydney fling and one Tregea hopes is a good pointer to some possible summer feature assignments.
“You don’t often see horses winning four Saturday races in a row,” Tregea said this week.
“Love Rocks won three straight for us and then first-up after a spell but it’s pretty rare.”
Tregea chose Prioritise as a Sydney travelling companion for stablemate Bergerac in August.
The plan came up trumps with Bergerac justifying his trip south in a bold Randwick victory while Prioritise performed strongly in both his outings where he was arguably unluckily beaten first-up at Randwick.
Tregea is hoping the experience of the 2000km interstate road trip is partly behind Prioritise’s from surge.
“He’s out of our former race mare Kimash and is probably turning out to be the best of hers so far,” Tregea said.
“He won his first start for us in Toowoomba by six lengths and showed us plenty early.
“He’s remained pretty consistent but he has a few little issues.
“He has a tendency to hang in in his race and has found his share of troubles.
“But he seems more comfortable getting up to the longer races now where he can race on the pace and near the rail to help guide him.
“He raced like a real miler in Sydney, but we took Bergerac down for the longer races and we kept this bloke in the shorter ones we had picked for him.
“But I think the travelling can do them good.
“Some cope with it better than others but maybe the experience of a trip has worked in this horse’s favour.”
Prioritise is taking a brief break before possibly being aimed at some summer features alongside Bergerac and fellow stablemate Niccanova — including the Bernborough.
“We need to bear in mind they are off-season races he’s been winning, so he hit form at a good time,” Tregea said.
“He’s having a few weeks off now and getting a bit of grass into himself.
“But along with Bergerac and Niccanova he’s probably earned a go at some nicer races now.”