OTI principal Terry Henderson warns promising stayer Attorney is a “ridiculously brief rate” and says he could be happy if the former European should fill only a putting notwithstanding having a stranglehold on betting for his first Saturday run.
Hinting he could retain to ship horses to NSW to cash in on the country’s prize cash bonanza, Henderson and instructor Matthew Smith get their strongest indication of Attorney’s credentials in a 2000-meter handicap at Randwick.
The four-12 months-old has received his hands-down two Australian begins at Newcastle and Canterbury after Henderson plucked Attorney out of France closing year. It became sufficient for BetEasy to shop him as quick as $2.05 in early markets on Thursday.
But Henderson has grave fears approximately how his gelding will deal with the handicapping situations, set to carry 54kg after Jason Collett become permitted to experience the horse overweight. Attorney remains a seventy-six-rater and will provide the most effective 5kg to topweight Mask Of Time, which is benchmarked 22 points higher than the average.
“He’s badly handicapped,” Henderson stated.
“It was a bit of a toss-up [whether to run in Brisbane or Sydney], and the reality is even though he ran inside the placings, it is probably going to be a good effort, the manner he is disabled.
“I assume he is a concise rate. He’s doing the whole thing right. He’s a bit like High Bridge, who was very good in his first runs, and he did run a nice race in the [group 1] Metrop. However, in an ordinary Saturday race, he ran down the track. So you’ve got to be a piece cautious with these horses.”
Henderson swooped on the horse formerly prepared by Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Mikel Delzangles of Dunaden repute after his maiden win at Clairefontaine; his 2d begins in a race.
Connections have resisted making any grand plans with the pony, which took 10 months to get to the races in Australia after his last European beginning.
“He becomes a pleasing galloper,” Henderson stated. “I think he won a race in Clairefontaine, and we bought him off that.
“He confirmed above-average potential to win that, and that became the catalyst essentially to buy him. He wasn’t inexpensive. But he might be a completely famous horse on the Arc sale, and I was eager to get him before then.
“We left him there for 2 runs, and he ran a pleasing race first-up, and the second time he ran a shocker. But, fundamentally, things didn’t cross the second time for a ramification of motives properly.”
Henderson is sending a developing quantity of runners up the Hume Highway after previously expressing disenchantment with factors of the Victorian enterprise, an advantage for NSW-based running shoes headed by Chris Waller.
But it’s far the affiliation with the Warwick Farm-primarily based Smith, which seems to be a blossoming one. Henderson was impressed with each element of the understated teacher’s yard.
Smith credits a three-year stint with Irish schooling genius Aidan O’Brien to support himself with former European horses after embarking on a deliberate plan to internationalize his stable.
“We made a aware selection whilst all the wheels had been beginning to fall off in Victoria a couple of years in the past we have been going to region more horses in NSW,” Henderson said.
“I started to [former ATC chairman] Laurie [Macri], ‘I’d see us having 20 horses up there interior of three years. I think we’ve been given 20 there internally in two years.
“We constructed the relationship up from there, and to be pretty frank, Sydney with Chris, Matt, and Kris Lees … The horses are extraordinarily well located with what I consider to be 3 very extraordinary running shoes. They cover all the bases. They’re exact communicators, and they are top horsemen of their own proper, but they’re right expert trainers.
