Bolden Beau returned to the track emboldened and stronger than ever on Saturday following a four-month spell.
The five-year-old gelding stormed home in the $25,000 Kevin Hicks Real Estate 0-58 Handicap over 1450m at Tatura to collect his third career win.
But the result was all the sweeter after it came off the back of a series of poorer performances in May.
Following his last win at Kyneton in April, Bolden Beau hit some rough form in his following three races throughout May due to the harder tracks, often pulling up lame in the off foreleg.
“Last preparation, he was just getting on the hard tracks and jarring up and pulling up sore,” co-trainer Michael Cornish said.
“Now we’ve just rectified the training method, and given him a nice spell, and he’s seemed to come back bigger and stronger.”
Starting at odds of $31 at Tatura, and with Craig Robertson on top, Bolden Beau thrived on the soft 6 surface, and let rip around the 600m mark.
Dashing up on the outside, Bolden Beau took the turn in third, before storming across the line 0.2 lengths ahead of Written Advice, while another Echuca horse, the Rhys Archard-trained Honeywire, finished fourth.
“He’s never done anything first-up for us, so it was a bit of a surprise,” Cornish said of Bolden Beau’s showing.
“But just given the fact he trialled really well on Monday in Echuca and went to the races a very confident horse, I think the time and the pace and his maturity has reached a point where I think he’s just going to keep on improving.”
Looking ahead, Cornish said it would now be a juggling act to find
Bolden Beau the right tracks to race on.
“We’re hoping it will be a fairly wet spring; we’ve got to dodge the harder tracks and put him on the softer ones,” he said.
“He might have two or three more runs this preparation as we try and find those soft tracks for him.
“It’s all about his confidence levels, and once the wet tracks dry up, he will head back out to the paddocks.”
Meg Saultry
Riverina Herald
