Lightly-raced Deebo to spell

Lightly-raced gelding Deebo will be off for a break after Monday’s last race at Armidale with all the promise and potential to come back a better horse.

That’s the considered view of his trainer Mark Mason who has found the perfect parting assignment for the son of Smart Missile to add to his already impressive CV.

Deebo has book-ended his four starts with wins, one on debut at Armidale on Anzac Day last year, the other one on Australia Day Eve at his home-track at Tamworth.

“He will go for a spell, win, lose or draw after this,’’ Mason said.

“He has been a work in progress, he is just one of those horses that the penny hasn’t dropped properly yet. He is still not all there yet in the head but I still think he can race well on Monday.’’

Deebo is closing on two months between starts but has been kept up to the mark at home for his pre-spell mission in Monday’s Laing & Simmons Handicap (1300m).

“He was going to that washed-out meeting at Armidale and it was just getting a bit long between runs,’’ Mason said. “The trials were here last week at Tamworth so it was a good opportunity him go around.

“And he went around against not a bad field of horses in the trial and he wasn’t far off them so I thought it was pretty good.’’

Monday’s 1300m shapes as the ideal distance for Deebo who is bred on a carefully crafted mix of speed and stamina. His father, Smart Missile, beat subsequent Golden Slipper winner Sepoy, in the 2011 Todman Stakes.

Deebo’s dam is by High Chaparral and his grand-dam is Royal Tiara who famously beat NZ Derby winning filly Popsy in the two-mile 1995 Auckland Cup. just to let