Young Cranbourne trainer Alexander Rae has been on a learning curve in his attempt to resurrect Fleet Review’s career.
Formerly trained by Aidan O’Brien, Fleet Review was one of four Irish sprinters who took part in feature Melbourne races during the spring of 2018.
After finishing out of the money in The Everest in Sydney, U S Navy Flag joined stablemates Fleet Review, Intelligence Cross and Spirit Of Valor in an unsuccessful campaign for O’Brien in Melbourne.
The latter three went to Australian stables while U S Navy Flag went to stud.
Fleet Review joined Rae’s operation soon after that spring campaign and after more than a year on the sidelines, he runs second-up in the Listed Bel Esprit Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
Rae was optimistic about Fleet Review’s first outing, but was left scratching his head after a less than flattering performance when Fleet Review ran ninth behind Runson at Morphettville last month.
“As soon as horses got around him he threw in the towel pretty quick,” Rae said.
“We thought that being a five-year-old entire he had his mind on other things and wasn’t interested in being a racehorse any more.
“So we’ve decided to keep things fresh, take him to the beach, jump a few tyres, get him out on the bush trails that we have here at Cranbourne.
“I understand that having the time off he may have lost interest in racing, but we’ve done everything we possibly can going into Saturday to try and rejuvenate him.”
Fleet Review was a Listed winner in Ireland and ran third to U S Navy Flag in the July Cup.
The trainer has called on Noel Callow’s vigour to try to extract the best from Fleet Review.
“We’ve sat him off a horses in track gallops, trying to remind him that it’s not so bad,” Rae said.
“The racing style in Europe, they are at them a long way out and they build into their races, so hopefully Noel can be positive, put him into the race and not give him any opportunity to think about things.”