TRAINER FIRES UP AT CHANCE TO CHANGE FUERZA’S FORTUNES
TRACY Timbery says she is relishing the opportunity to train Fuerza, two years after being first approached to take the horse on.
Timbery will target next month’s Wyong Gold Cup with the seven-year-old after coming within 1.2 lengths of winning the Grafton Cup last Thursday at $101 odds.
The Gold Coast trainer will send Fuerza to Doomben this Saturday to gain crucial fitness, conceding her preparations for the Grafton Cup were rushed after acquiring the gelding at the start of the year.
It came two years after part-owner Richard Westbury called Timbery to train Fuerza before the runner was ultimately given to Brisbane’s Paul Duncan.
“He called me out of the blue to ask if I’d train his horse,” Timbery, who only had four horses in her stable at the time, said. “It’s a rare occurrence for me so I asked him why he called. He said I had one of the best strike rates out of any trainer listed on the Gold Coast.
“Richard said I had no web page and I was very hard to find so he thought I must spend a lot of time with my horses, which I do.
“He had to run it by the other owners and they decided it had to go to a Group trainer instead.”
Timbery continued to keep an eye on Fuerza until Richard called again at the end of last year to see if it was still possible to send the horse to her stable.
Timbery said it had taken a lot of time and work to get Fuerza back up to scratch after arriving with stringhalt, a condition suffered when horses graze a type of weed.
It causes problems with horses’ back legs and their ability to walk.
“I was not happy with his coat, his eyes, muscle wastage on the off-side rear, no top line, tightness all on the near side and stringhalt,” Timbery said.
“He knew how to gallop but I had to get him to want to do it again.”