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By Brad Gray
At Rosehill Gardens

Improvement To Come From Juveniles
Hugh Bowman, who celebrated his 38th birthday on Saturday, was quick to point out that penny still hasn’t dropped for The Fire Trap despite the gelding winning the opening race at Rosehill Gardens for Matthew Dunn.

Birthday boy Hugh Bowman (Pic: Steve Hart)

“He is still raw but he is a very sensible horse and I can see him developing quickly. He can obviously gallop and when his brain catches up to his body, he’ll be competitive in much better races,” Bowman said.

The same can be said for the third placed Laburnum and Nobu, who ran fourth. Laburnum has plenty of physical developing to do while Reliable Man colt Nobo simply wants further.

“Good run,” Sam Weatherley said of Nobu, “He’ll appreciate the step up to the mile and a little bit of cut in the track but he’s improving each time.”

Meanwhile, Brenton Avdulla said of Laburnum, “I thought I was the winner at the 300m. She just lost her way a little bit from the furlong onwards. She is a filly improving and she hasn’t really worked out how to attack the line but I wouldn’t give up on her.”

On Route To Better Things
Roman Typhoon has no shortage of talent and the three-year-old took the first step to finally realising it in the day’s TAB Highway Handicap. The winkers were applied, which no doubt played a role, but trainer Jan Bowen also pointed to the fact he had galloping room.

“He could have won easier,” said the Muswellbrook-based trainer, “He still does a few things wrong. He is one of those horses that needs plenty of room. If you take hold of him he throws his head around.”

Winning hoop Brenton Avdulla added, “He is a nice big horse but has no idea what it’s all about. He was only fairly away, I threw the reins at him to let him relax and when the speed slowed he got running with me. I was out of control there in the middle stages but I was always confident around the bend that he was going to be the winner.”

Bowen is now eyeing off another Highway Handicap over 1400m in a fortnight.

Tim Clark, who rode Rekindled Force, said the newly gelded three-year-old would take plenty of improvement from the run and will appreciate further. Meanwhile, spare a thought for Danny Williams whose truck tailboard was frozen this morning with temperatures dropping to -8 degrees. He finally hit the road only to see Highway Sixtysix scratched at the barriers. His spirits would have been lifted by the eye-catching effort of Green Sweet later in the day though.

Rekindled Force returns a gelding and gets the blinkers on for the first time today.

Looks ready to go. @tabcomau pic.twitter.com/7SmCXOz1g9

— Racing NSW (@racing_nsw) July 14, 2018

Raqeeq Ready To Win Next Time
Chris Waller flagged the Newcastle Cup in September as a possible long term target for Raqeeq after the import ran second at Rosehill Gardens behind stable mate Vaucluse Bay.

“His run probably ended at the 100m,” said Waller. It was good to see him switch off, settle and do things right. He’ll certainly be winning shortly. It’s a good time of year to not only pick up prize money but to give a horse confidence.”

That sentiment was echoed by jockey Brenton Avdulla, who rode a treble on the day, extending his lead to 14 in the metro jockey premiership over Blake Shinn. Punters Intel reveals Raqeeq was still the only runner in the field to break 12s home (11.90s).

“I thought he was the winner half way up but just peaked on his run second up,” said Avdulla.

Waller was also quick to praise the work of the Rosehill Gardens track manager Shaun Patterson for turning out the surface in such outstanding order.

King Gives Lanciato Big Tick
Very few punters would have missed the eye-catching trial of Lanciato at Friday’s set of trials at Royal Randwick and his regular rider Rachel King says he felt as good as he looked.

“He felt great,” she said, “He doesn’t normally trial that well his first one back. He was just out there to do whatever he wanted to do really. He’ll have another trial in a couple of weeks and then there is an open handicap he’ll go to.”

“He looked bigger. He is still a bit fluffy at the moment but that’s just him. He did his usual thing. He cruised around out the back and I just tried to keep him out of the kickback and let him tow me up the straight. He made up a lot of ground and ran right through the line, he was in front past the post.”

As King pointed out, the G3 Newcastle Newmarket-winner, who was last seen when midfield in the G1 Doncaster, has run third first up in his last two preparation before winning second up.

Here is the trial if you missed it

Three on The Trot For Albumin
Would Albumin run 1200m? That was the $100,000 question. It was answered with the grey three-year-old holding off a late charge from Salsonic to make it three wins in a row.

Jay Ford and Albumin do it again (Pic: Steve Hart)

It certainly hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the Foxwedge youngster though, with Gerald Ryan the first to admit he threw him in the deep end early in his career.

“He was gelded the day after I bought him as a yearling. He is the only horse I wanted to buy in Melbourne that year but he was a handful. He wasn’t even sold at the time,” revealed Ryan.

“He had a colt’s attitude as a young horse. I normally give them a chance as a colt and won’t geld them unless I really have to.

“We have got his half-sister by Zoustar who is snow white and she has an attitude too.”

Her name is Trawalla.

Mulberry Walk Not Like Famous Brother
Make sure you watch the opening race at Hawkesbury tomorrow (Sunday) where a half-sister to Chautauqua will debut for Peter and Paul Snowden.

The stable have been very patient with Mulberry Walk, by More Than Ready out of Lovely Jubly, being a rising four-year-old. She trialled at Hawkesbury on June 26 and cruised to victory with plenty still up her sleeve.

“She is a nice filly and has just taken a little bit of time to get to the races,” said Paul Snowden.

“She seems to do everything right. She is a forward filly that pings the lids and travels, with a good cruising speed. It’s the opposite to her brother, she doesn’t have to get back, she does her own thing in front and that’s how she has been since we’ve had her.”

Bookies expect Mulberry Walk to make a winning debut with TAB posting her $1.25 in their fixed odds market.

Check out all the results and replays for Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.