Burdekin Blues on a southern assignment
|
No real pressure was applied to Burdekin Blues who posted his fourth win in succession (Noel Pascoe photos)
|
Burdekin Blues has belted his opposition once again to the joy of punters marking his fourth victory in succession.
The Barry Baldwin-trained five-year-old has been in blistering form over the past three months claiming the Group 3 George Moore Stakes and the Listed Grazia Ultimate Style Stakes and has now added the $100,000 Attwood Marshall Lawyers Bat Out Of Hell Handicap 900m to his kitty.
Gold Coast punters on Saturday, January 2 sent out Burdekin Blues as a $1.60 race favourite with Shane Scriven aboard.
Despite carrying 61 kilograms, five and a half kilograms more than any other horse in the field, and the weight of expectations from unforgiving punters, the Sequalo gelding made an impact on the Gold Coast which would no doubt have been felt in Melbourne.
Burdekin Blues is now headed for a return to Group glory and as Scriven explains the weekend was simply a warm-up for the five-year-old.
“It’s onward and upward,” he said. “The next start we’re looking at Melbourne. We can go down knowing that A. he handles Melbourne and B. he’s still going as good as ever, so we’re a deserved chance.
“Everybody’s talking that they’d love to see him over 1350 metres in the (Doomben) 10,000. I reckon he can run further, but like Barry says ‘why, are we doing something wrong?’.
“You’ve only got to look at his record to see that whatever he is doing is pretty bloody right.”
The five-year-old is making a habit of his podium topping ways with 11 wins from 18 starts to his name and $651,050 in prizemoney and backs up Baldwin’s stance to not alter a winning strategy.
With any luck this could be Queensland’s top representative to take the fight to southern-based horses in 2010 and, according to connections, possibly much further abroad.
“Long term, if he’s as good as we hope he is and he comes away with a Group 1 down in Melbourne then you start to look at races in England,” Scriven said.
|
Shane Scriven is enjoying the ride on the Melbourne-bound star
|
“We had a bit of joke that Bazz (Baldwin) would look good in top-hat and tails meeting Lizzy over there.
“That’s a long-term plan. It’s still a bit of a pipedream at the moment, but we’re heading in that direction anyway.”
Scriven took the fight to his opposition in the Bat Out of Hell on the Gold Coast in a positive move up front and was never headed. However, in a sign of bigger things to come for the gelding, the hoop held his excitement within.
“He did what he had to,” Scriven said. “I suppose with the weight and the way he won we were pretty happy with him.
“We’re not getting too carried away. It was a 900 metre race and there was a lot of fast horses. It’s not really his caper, although he is a very fast horse, he is more of a fast 1000 to 1200 metre horse.
“It was a nice stepping stone, and put it this way, we would have been extremely disappointed had he not won.”
Burdekin Blues held off the only resistance offered, albeit fleeting, by Azzaland and jockey Gary Geran who fell by one length at the post.
Azzaland hails from the Richie Stephenson stables at Toowoomba and the five-year-old is pretty swift himself over a short distance with nine wins from 16 starts to his name, including two wins in metropolitan company.
“When we straightened up and I hadn’t moved on him I thought (Burdekin Blues) may have run away to win by five or six lengths,” Scriven said.
“The second horse is certainly no slouch and he gave us a bit of a battle the last 100 metres. Over the last furlong I had half a worry because I couldn’t shake (Azzaland), but right on the line I was probably getting away from him.
“That’s what Burdekin Blues does to them, they’ve been chasing for that long, then when it comes down to the real battle they’re putting the white flag up.”
Fantene, ridden by Daniel Ganderton for Grahame Begg, finished third a further one and a quarter lengths behind.
QUEENSLAND Racing web news: Ross Dowd – January 4
|
