By Ray Hickson
Trainer Matthew Dunn is adamant better wins will be in store for first-up eye-catcher Badoosh but he’s happy to take the gelding back to midweek level at Warwick Farm on Wednesday.
The step away from Saturday shouldn’t be seen as a negative, Dunn said, and he can’t ignore the fact the four-year-old, who ran second behind Not Feint Hearted at Randwick on August 1, is a 62 rater after one win from 13 starts.
“There’s no set in stone program for him because he’s a Class 1 horse at the moment and needs to get his act together,’’ Dunn said.
“Most of it isn’t any fault of his. He’s probably run five times where you watch the race and go ‘gee he should have won there’. He’s one of those horses that seems to be back when they’re on pace or getting decked at the 600m.
“The potential is there and always has been and now he’s in Sydney I think we are going to see the best of him.
“If we want to take him to better races he needs a few more points to make sure he gets in. He’s going really well, he’s hard to beat I’m sure of it.’’
Badoosh, one of Dunn's team based at Rosehill, will tackle the Bowermans Commercial Furniture Handicap (1400m) and Dunn was more than satisfied with his first-up effort in heavy ground.
Badoosh runs second at Randwick on August 1
He settled near the tail in the 1300m event at Randwick and Punter’s Intelligence sectional data showed he was matching the winner from the 400m-200m (12.18), but conceding a big start, and while still making ground just knocked up over the final 200m.
Dunn said striking another heavy track isn’t ideal but it also might not be such a bad thing as if he were to run on a good surface second-up he could easily be outsprinted.
“He was excellent, I just thought we could go to another Saturday race but he has a low rating so we might as well take advantage of it,’’ he said.
“The thing that scares the hell out of me running them first-up on a heavy track is what happens second-up. Everyone is exposed to that situation in Sydney at the moment, there’s no avoiding it.
“His blood is perfect, he has put weight on since his run so every indication is it hasn’t floored him and his racing pattern means he doesn’t have a hard run.’’
Dunn said he has added the blinkers to Badoosh, $4.60 with TAB, to help him focus until he stretches up towards a mile.
Stablemate Nishikori bumped into what could be a smart customer in Torun finishing second at Hawkesbury on debut and Dunn said the increase in trip in the Frosted @ Darley Handicap (1300m) is going to suit.
Torun was too quick over the 1000m but Dunn said he liked the way the three-year-old, $18 with TAB, rounded up the rest of the field.
“He was off the bridle the entire race, it’s always hard for horses to quicken like he did when they are at the top the entire trip,’’ he said.
“I was a bit tempted to stop him after his first run but he came through it so well I decided to go again.
“I don’t know how that form measures up, I’m sure the winner is a decent horse. If he can reproduce something similar to that he’s not without a chance.’’
All the fields, form and replays for Wednesday's Warwick Farm meeting