Popular grey Bauer found it hard to adjust to his new role when he made his racetrack return at Werribee as a clerk of the course’s horse.
After two months of training with Graham Salisbury, the former English stayer was on the job for the first time at Thursday’s meeting with his thrill for the contest still coursing through his veins.
“I can feel his heart racing through my boot,” said Salisbury as he sat astride the nine-year-old gelding in the mounting yard.
“He still thinks he’s a racehorse. He’s ready to go.”
Bauer was edgy watching the start of the early races but gradually eased into the job.
After the fourth race his chance came to lead in his first winner and there was a sense of pride as he arched his neck walking back into the enclosure alongside the Mick Kent-trained Darlimurla Star, who had taken out the Cobra Signs Plate.
“He’s still very new but he will get it,” Salisbury said.
A relatively small horse, not much bigger than 15 hands, Bauer was recognised for his courage on the track.
Trained by England’s Luca Cumani, he captured the imagination of racegoers when he failed by a nose to beat the Bart Cummings-trained Viewed in the 2008 Melbourne Cup.
Then after almost two years away from the racetrack through injury, Bauer returned for the 2010 spring carnival only to be a race morning scratching from the Melbourne Cup.
Last year, on his third Australian visit, he just missed emulating his 2008 Geelong Cup win when third to Dunaden but was balloted out of the great race.
Bauer was retired after finishing fourth as a short-priced favourite in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Flemington on November 5.
