Bolero King continues his injury-delayed quest for black-type recognition when the Clarry Conners-trained gelding steps up to city Saturday grade racing at Randwick.
Conners has set the bar high for the four-year-old, who needed more than a year off to mend a tendon issue.
“I’m expecting big things from him. I think he’s a black-type horse for sure this prep,” Conners said.
Bolero King won twice in his first preparation but he was off the scene for more than 12 months when the leg issue was diagnosed after he raced at Canberra in March last year.
“I always thought the horse would come back OK,” Conners said.
“We had to give him time and it’s hard to do it these days … we’ve got to go and win two-year-old races all the time.”
Conners has always held a high opinion of Bolero King and that view was reinforced in a commanding first-up win at Gosford over 1100m on June 16.
He was then nabbed on the post at Canterbury on July 5 by Torpenhow, who is among Bolero King’s rivals in the Winx Is Coming Handicap (1200m) on Saturday.
“He led when he wasn’t supposed to lead and got beat on the line,” Conners said.
Conners also has 36-race veteran He’s A Given – a $9 hope with the TAB on Thursday – resuming in the race after a 19-week break.
“He’s had a nice spell, we’ll get his benchmark up this prep and he’s definitely a Saturday horse,” he said.
Stable favourite Kudero ($6) also returns to the scene of his most recent win on May 27 when he tackles the same distance in the July Sprint (1100m).
Conners disregarded Kudero’s sixth over 1200m at Rosehill last Saturday because he was never able to find a run.
“He never got out and he got beat three lengths going to the line just cantering. It didn’t affect him one little bit, so I’m happy enough to run him again,” Conners said.
