Bet On Love worth keeping an eye on
TOLGA trainer Roy Chillemi has no doubt impressive fouryear-old Bet On Love would be competitive in a Lightning Open Handicap, but whether she wins is another question.
The promising mare was second-last at the turn at Cairns’ Cannon Park on Tuesday before letting down in the straight to overcome Bold Type (Stephen Massingham) and Hard Yaga (Trevor Rowe) in the closing strides.
The horse sports a handy record, having missed a place in just eight of her 22 starts, with five wins, four seconds and five thirds.
She ran three seconds and a seventh this prep prior to Tuesday’s win, and Chillemi thinks there’s still progression in her yet.
“She’s just a good, honest money-earner of a horse,” he said.
“I don’t think she’s any champion but I think there’s a bit more improvement in her, but I don’t know how much.
“If I can place her, she’ll win a few more races.”
Chillemi said he believed she would be competitive in a Lightning Open Handicap.
“Lightning’s are pretty tough races, whether she’s up to winning that at the moment, I don’t know,” he said.
“But, she draws a barrier, she gets a light weight, she’s going to be competitive that’s for sure. Whoever wins is going to have to work hard to beat her.”
Chillemi said he would step her out over a longer distance in one of her next starts.
“I’m going to try her over 1200m in the near future and just see if she can run 1200m, which will open the scope a little bit more for her,” he said.
“I have run her over 1200m before, and she did win, but she’s had a little bit of breathing trouble and due to that I’ve sort of kept her to the 1000m, but I do want to try her over 1200m again and see how she goes.
“I think she’ll go okay, that’s my feeling. That will give her more options, as I don’t have to restrict her to 1000m races around carnival time and there’s more on the program for her.”
He said she could potentially race over further as well.
“The 1400m is not out of the equation because of her breeding, most of those Love Conquers All horses do get a bit of distance,” he said.
“They can get up to a mile, and can get even further, but I’ll just try her out over 1200m and see how she goes and we’ll go from there.”
Chillemi said she was “a nice little horse”.
“She’s running places all the time,” he said.
“She’s won upwards of $120,000, which is good for up here, and she’s won all that money in North Queensland.
“If she can win up to that $200,000 or close to it, well it’s really good money. She wasn’t a very dear purchase, I think she was around the $18,000-mark as a yearling. “You’d like more of them.” Chillemi said there was an opportunity for a jockey or trackwork rider at his stables on the Tablelands, with leading hoop Wanderson D’Avila moving south.
“There’s a pretty good living there for someone up there,” he said.