Kim Waugh has endured a frustrating period with limited runners but had reason to smile at Scone on Saturday when the progressive Alumbrado raced to a narrow first-up victory.
Waugh said the past three months had a been lean period after a virus swept through her stable, limiting her number of runners.
“We’ve been really quiet in the past three months or so. We’ve maybe only had 10 runners.
“I had 16 of 20 horses get a virus and I had to turn over half of them out.
“It’s been frustrating. It was like walking into a hospital every day.”
Waugh pinpointed Saturday’s Dane Shadow Sprint (1100m) for Alumbrado ($14) on the back of a pleasing barrier trial at Wyong late last month.
The five-year-old gelding arrived in time to defeat the David Payne-trained Smash Hit ($51) by a nose with a neck to Liesele ($10).
“He is really a 1400 metre horse but he goes really well fresh and he turned in a great trial,” Waugh said.
“This was such a good race for him. There is such a long straight which gives him time to wind up and it has worked out really well.
“We thought he would be very hard to beat today.”
Waugh hasn’t settled on another target for Alumbrado but says a trip to Brisbane is a possibility.
“He might go to Brisbane a bit down the track but I just wanted to get today out of the way first,” she said.
Alumbrado also brought up the first winner of the two-day Scone Cup carnival for star New Zealand jockey James McDonald.