Hobby trainer and aged pensioner Jim Delaney is the first to admit ultra consistent Floral Insight has turned into the family bread winner.
And the 70-year-old Taree-based trainer is laughing all the way to the bank.
After finishing unplaced at his first two starts, Floral Insight has strung together five wins and 13 placings from 20 starts.
The tough four-year-old’s current campaign began on May 6 and he will be out to further his enviable record and boost Delaney’s income in the Manning River Hotel Benchmark 75 Hcp (1007m) on his home track on Sunday.
“Everyone keeps telling me the horse should have been spelled months ago,” Delaney said.
“I’m an old aged pensioner.
“It’s hard to spell him when he’s racing well and keeps bringing in money.
“I’ve got to have something to support me.”
Floral Insight is tough, no doubt, a quality Delaney believes he inherits from his dam, Please Believe.
“He did nothing at his first two starts but has never missed a cheque since,” Delaney said.
“He’s tough. Everything out of the mare has been tough. He’s just following the others.
Please Believe never raced due to knee problems. The mare has had nine foals including Palace Archway and Universal Belief, trained by Delaney and back in work after being sidelined for the best part of three years.
Incredibly, Please Believe simply disappeared in a paddock a couple of years back.
“Hasn’t been sighted since,” Delaney said.
“I’d just got her into foal to Floral Dynamite and one morning she was just gone.
“I wish they could have taken her before I paid to get her in foal. She wasn’t insured at the time.”
Delaney said Floral Insight was showing no signs of being over the top yet.
“He goes home every time after he races and eats everything in sight,” he said.
“I don’t work him hard. He swims and has one decent hit out each week.
“He goes in wet or dry, it doesn’t matter.
“Everything is in good order with him. He carries weight good and I might go back to Warwick Farm early next month then spell him.
“He’s earned it.”
For only the second occasion in his career, Floral Insight will be ridden by an apprentice with three kilo claimer Kirk Matheson to take the reins.
AAP TURF
