Prospects at Ararat
Weekend racing returned to the Wimmera last week with Ararat hosting a seven-race card on Saturday.
On-speed was the place to be with five of the seven winners settling in or outside the lead, but only one race – the fourth, a benchmark 58 contest over 1200 metres – was run at a better time than standard.
The Ben and JD Hayes runner Mt Buller won this event by threeand-a-half lengths, leading for the entirety of the trip. But you would suspect the gelding’s win played second fiddle to their Doncaster Mile winner, Mr Brightside, in Sydney two hours later.
The feel-good story of the day came up in the last, when Rebecca Winnell recorded the first win in her short training career with her new stable hero, Socialite Miss.
Watching the excitement and joy overflow from the Hamilton trainer oncourse should remind us all why we love this game so much – congratulations Rebecca.
One runner to put in the black book from Saturday is the Mark Pegus-trained Buena Veloz. The eight-year-old settled last in the feature race of the day, a benchmark 64 event over 1300m, but tracked into the race nicely at the bend and made solid ground over the concluding stages to finish second.
Bueno Veloz was ultimately beaten by three-quarters of a length by race favourite Adandiman, $2.30. This was no meanfeat on a day where runners found it difficult to make ground in the straight, but the run was full of merit and qualified him for the Good Friday Country Trainers Series Final at Sale on April 15, presenting the Stawell trainer with a pleasant problem.
“He was being aimed up at the Warracknabeal Cup on Easter Saturday on April 16, but now he’s qualified for Sale I’ve got to have a think about where I’ll take him,” Pegus said.
“We were really happy with the run. I was thinking he was a chance first-up at Avoca last week, but he drew a bad gate and had to go back at the start, a bit like at Ararat. I’d like to see him draw low and be able to sit just in behind the leaders and put himself into the race.”
Pegus has time to decide where he will take the son of Good Journey next – the lure of metropolitan prizemoney at Sale is surely playing on his mind – but if he heads up the Henty to Warracknabeal,
he will be extremely hard to beat in their feature on Easter Saturday.
Another to follow is strong maiden winner Chorizama, $8, which came from last to take out the second race on the card over 1100m.
The Jimmy Creed gelding jumped awkwardly and found himself last on the fence shortly after the start, but jockey Aaron Lynch did not panic, making ground inside runners approaching the turn and exploded when he found clear air, winning impressively by more than two lengths.
Trainer Symon Wilde was thrilled with his three-year-old’s debut run.
“We were pleasantly surprised, we probably weren’t expecting that performance,” Wilde said.
“He worked well with a horse of Colin Chandler’s last week who then came out and ran second in a benchmark 58 at Geelong, so I probably should’ve twigged that he’d run well.
“He appears like he’ll get better over more distance. We’ll look for a three-year-old race for him, step him out to 1400.”
While his itinerary is not set in concrete, Chorizama looks a horse we can follow with some confidence wherever he steps out next.