Big-time sprinter Chasm is set to end an exasperating winning drought of more than two years when he kicks off his spring campaign in the Regal Roller Stakes at Caulfield.
Trainer Heath Conners has noted improvement in the seven-year-old who will follow a similar program to last year which included a Group One third in the Emirates Stakes (1600m) at Flemington.
“He looks terrific and every preparation I have seen a change in the horse,” Conners said.
“I have had him since he was a three-year-old and every time he has come back in to the stable he’s been different, more mature and more mellow.
Last Wednesday Chasm finished fourth in a jump out at Geelong but Conners was expecting the defeat.
“That is about as much as he does,” Conners said. “He is a big gross horse and he has never won a trial in his life.
“He knows what race day is and he just goes out and does what he has to do.”
Chasm has been placed at 19 of his 32 starts but remarkably the last of his eight wins was in the Listed Auckland Racing Club Hcp (1610m) at Flemington on Anzac Day 2009.
Brad Rawiller was the last jockey to win on him but Jason Benbow, who has the best record on the gelding, will be offered the mount in Saturday’s Listed Regal Roller (1200m) after partnering him in his Geelong jump out.
Benbow has six wins and four placings on Chasm from 15 rides.
“He knows the horse and he has been given the opportunity to get back on,” Conners said.
He said Chasm, a noted fast finisher, was deserving of a big race win after going so close in the past.
Last season he had only eight starts and five times was stakes-placed including four times in Group races.
He hasn’t raced since March when he was unplaced in the Newmarket Handicap won by Black Caviar.
Conners said the Regal Roller and one other as yet to be decided race would be early spring targets for Chasm.
He said Chasm would then run in the same races as last year starting with Group Two Gilgai Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on October 2, followed by the Group One Toorak Hcp (1600m), Group Two Salinger Stakes (1200m) and Emirates Stakes.
Last year he finished third, 1-1/2 lengths from the winner Hay List in the Gilgai and was beaten two lengths when ninth in the Toorak before finishing 1-1/2 lengths fourth to Whitefriars in the Salinger and third in a three-way photo to Wall Street and Dao Dao in the Emirates.
“He thrived on those races last year,” Conners said.
“The difference between winning and finishing second in races like that is enormous and he deserves to win one.
“He doesn’t have to improve much for that to happen if I can get him going as well as he was going last spring.”
AAP TURF
