Trainer Jeff Dunn is weighing up a crack at the Ramornie Handicap with Sha Of Gomer, his Rockhampton Newmarket winner, who has pulled up well after his feature race success at Callaghan Park last Friday where he was ridden by Rikki Dunn … keeping it all in the family.
“He pulled up very well,” said Dunn. “I compare him to a pony club horse … nothing really fazes him. I wish they were all as easy as him … easy to ride, easy to handle. Our young girls could probably lead him around at the end of the lead.
“He came through the run. He handled the trip … the travel … and he hasn’t left any feed at all, so we are looking at potentially going to the Ramornie Handicap next Wednesday, which is a drop back to 1200m (from the 1300m of the Rockhampton Newmarket).
“Of course, we are going to first make sure that he doesn’t have a delayed hangover from the travel or anything like that … but, if we go there, we are looking to draw a good gate. I think with his turn of speed he’ll be very competitive.
“We went to the Newmarket. We could have gone to the Glasshouse instead (contested at the Sunshine Coast on the same weekend as the Rockhampton Newmarket).
“I do think he would have been competitive there, but we decided to take the weaker option and win a feature race up north with him.
“Even though the Eye Liner form was number one in the Glasshouse, I still think we pulled the right rein. (Sha Of Gomer was just touched off by Oughton in the Eye Liner in a race in which Fortunate kiss finished third. Fortunate Kiss and Oughton then filled the first two placings in the Glasshouse).
“It was a softer track at Rockhampton,” continued Dunn. ‘the horse had the run … and not had a gut-busting run or anything like that. He was held up for a long way in the straight and only really speeded up the last couple of hundred metres.
“In other circumstances, we might have had to pull up stumps now and go to the paddock but, as things stand now, we’ll have a look at the Ramornie next and then give him a little spell in the paddock after that. He’s rating is getting up there now.
“We’ll be nominating for the Ramornie … looking at the draw, looking at the field. If we can draw a good gate we’ll be ready to get cracking, I reckon.
“We’ve been lucky with the horse, not only result-wise, but also because there are a lot of people in the ownership who haven’t had a horse with us before.
“We got the horse from (Chris) Waller at a cheaper price. Not many horses get improved from Waller, that’s for sure, but some horses do prefer a smaller stable with that one-on-one touch and Sha Of Gomer seems to be one of them.” (Sha Of Gomer has win $111 100 in five starts since relocating to the Dunn stable).
“We found a few little niggling things with him, but we’ve got a really good team of chiro’s and others who helped get him feeling as well as he could.
“It seems to be working, so we just keep that level of maintenance on him and hopefully that keeps bringing the same sort of results.”
