Adrian Bott has been content to bide his time with former handy two-year-old Fully Lit, hoping his patient management will continue to reward the gelding’s owners into the future.
The 2024 Inglis Millennium winner will line up for just his second start in 12 months when he steps out in Saturday’s Switzerland @ Coolmore Handicap (1200m) at Randwick and his lack of recent racing hasn’t been due to injury.
Bott said the son of Hellbent simply needed time to mature and furnish after a busy juvenile season that included a Black Opal Stakes placing and midfield finish in last year’s Golden Slipper.
“After the two-year-old campaign, it just took him a while to develop and strengthen up to where we needed him to be to make that improvement at three,” Bott said.
“He came into the stable, had a couple of trials, a jump out in Melbourne and then back to the paddock.”
Fully Lit finally returned to the races last month, the three-year-old resuming with a solid fourth over 1200m at Rosehill in testing heavy conditions.
He is expected to take significant improvement from the hit-out and the stable has also employed an important gear change.
“He had that first-up run and he was probably in need of that. Second-up here he should show some improvement in his fitness,” Bott said.
“We have put the blinkers on Saturday to sharpen him up as well.
“He is working like he might get out a little bit further later in the prep.”
Rachel King has the ride on Fully Lit, who has drawn the inside gate.
Stablemate Bases Loaded returns as a gelding in the Civic Stakes (1400m) and has performed fresh in the past, finishing runner-up in the Theo Marks Stakes (1300m) first-up in the spring.
However, Bott cautioned that form reference could be misleading given the horse was coming of a late-winter campaign in Brisbane.
“That was off a quick turnaround from Queensland so he had a bit of residual fitness, whereas he is coming off a decent break here,” he said.
“He will improve, especially when he gets out to the mile again.
“We will take him through to a couple of those races like the Winter Stakes.”
He also expects former French horse Shamarkand to find some of his rivals too sharp when he makes his Australian debut in The Living Turf Handicap (1800m).
A Listed winner over 2400m in Europe, the four-year-old’s trials suggest he will need further to show his best.
“He has been one-paced in his trials,” Bott said.
“He is straight off over the 1800 and that might still be a bit short of his best but he will improve with racing.”
