Spell works magic for Bitoftheblarney
A recent spell and move to the Sunshine State has been credited for Bitoftheblarney’s return to the winner’s circle at Doomben on Wednesday.
Formerly based at Chris Waller’s Melbourne stable, the Go Racing owned five-year-old joined the leading trainer’s Gold Coast stable earlier this year.
The striking Ribchester gelding showed plenty of promise in his early career. He won impressively on debut in June 2023 as a three-year-old, however it has taken until now for him to get his second win.
“He was from Ribchester’s first New Zealand born crop and he was a real standout yearling, just a really well put together colt” Go Racing’s General Manager Matt Allnutt recalled. “We purchased him for $230,000 out of Haunui Farm’s draft.
“He won his debut race like a really good horse, and we thought we’d found something special but since then he’s been quite a hard going sort of horse who tended to beat himself by over racing and doing things wrong.
“He went to Queensland part way through his last campaign and his form has been consistent since, he had placed in three of his last four starts.”
Ridden by James Orman in Wednesday’s Cascade Benchmark 68 Handicap over 1650m, Bitoftheblarney jumped well from barrier five, maintained a solid gallop and settled off the pace before launching four-wide at the top of the straight and sprinting home to win by 0.8L.
“James got him going at the right time, he showed a good turn of foot at the top of the straight and put them away quite comfortably,” Allnut said.
“I think the key with him this time in is that he’s been in Queensland right from the start of his preparation and Brent Killion (Waller’s Gold Coast Foreperson), said he’s a completely different horse this time in, he’s matured physically and mentally and he’s been doing everything better at the stables, at trackwork and in his races.”
Allnutt said Bitoftheblarney would make his next appearance in a similar race at Doomben in two weeks’ time.
“Just based on how he went yesterday it wouldn’t surprise me if we could get him up to 2000m. It was a good win the penny’s finally starting to drop with him and hopefully he can continue to make it through the grades,” he said.
The win was made even more special with Christine Donaldson, one of the fourteen owners of Bitoftheblarney on course to share in the celebrations.
“Christine has shares in a number of our horses and she was over there on holiday, so she got to be there to see him and that was a great thrill for her,” Allnutt said.
Click here to watch the replay of this race.
Photo: Part-owner Christine Donaldson pictured with Bitoftheblarney.