Leap of faith in maturing runner

After checking the form guide for the fourth event at last week’s Charlton-maryborough meeting, one would be required to make a fair leap of faith if deciding to invest their ‘hard-earned’ on the number-11 saddlecloth, sported by sixyear-old gelding Dontshowyouraces.

Eleven previous starts for a single minor placing, a long history of mentions in stewards reports, such as ‘raced roughly, contacted barrier arm, pulled hard, stood down from racing, broke in the score up and raced fiercely’ and a gap of nine months since its last outing, would have been enough to deter most punters.

There were, however, a couple of bright specks among all the rough, including a tough effort when narrowly beaten in slick time at Maryborough, albeit 18 months ago and an all-the-way victory – subsequently disqualified – at Stawell back in June last year.

“He lost the race at Stawell after returning a swab with an excessive arsenic count from chewing on the treated-pine fence posts,” explained owner-trainer Michael Gadsden.

“So since we leased him from Robert Burns as a four-year-old, it’s been a long, chequered journey. But he’s always shown us ability and that’s why he’s still here.”

After starting from the extreme outside of the second row at Maryborough, driver Denbeigh Wade restrained Dontshowyouraces to the tail of the field.

Last at the bell, Wade made a three-wide move down the back straight and with a long sustained run the big bay joined the leader as they turned for home.

Dontshowyouraces raced away over the final stages to score by nine metres with a further gap of 15 metres to the rest of the pack, in a rate of 1:58.8 for the 1690-metre sprint trip.

“This time in work the horse has really matured physically and mentally,” Gadsden said.

“He still wants to overdo it a bit but he’s getting a lot better.”

With their trotter King Denny headed to the paddock for a well-deserved spell, the Gadsden-wade combo thought they wouldn’t have a starter at Friday night’s home track cup meeting.

“While it was only a restricted class race at Maryborough, he did it so well we’ll give him an opportunity here in the $7000, C0 race over a bit more distance. He works on the track most days and should be comfortable on it,” Gadsden said.

It’s Hot To Trot at Ararat Cup meeting on Friday; Gunbower on Sunday; Mt Gambier on Monday; Hamilton on March 3 and in Horsham for the Invitation Drivers Championship during the Labour Day holiday Monday on March 11.