How great it was to have the talented Saorsa back in winning form at Pakenham on Friday, the five-year-old enjoying a drop in grade off an unlucky but good effort at Mornington last month.
Due to have had a run in between, Saorsa developed a foot abscess which led to a race day scratching. But that cloud had a silver lining with the lightly raced gelding always racing well on the fresh side.
Something which provides Rick with somewhat of a challenge – “the Statue Of Liberty breed can be a bit hot and keeping them fresh can accentuate those issues,” he said.
And so Rick spends a fair bit of time on Saorsa, a horse who also has muscular problems, regularly treated with ultrasound.
But whilst Saorsa is not the easiest horse to train, he is well worth the effort with this latest success the third of his 13 start career.
And an impressive one it was too!
Well supported in the betting, Saorsa was patiently steered by Jamie Kah who was having her first ride on him. Travelling nicely midfield, he weaved through the field in the straight and by the 200m he had just two in front of him.
Wearing those two rivals down in determined fashion, Saorsa looked to have a bit in hand as he raced clear to win by 1¼ lengths.
“It was good to get him back in the winners circle,” Rick said, adding that “we were confident coming into today’s race.”
“His last run on a leader biased track was very good and he was fresh and bouncing today. We added the blinkers which let him focus and Jamie’s ride was pleasing.
