A change in routine has worked wonders for Adelaide sprinter Dexelation who will be chasing a winning hat-trick when he lines up at Cranbourne.
After 1000m wins at Morphettville and The Valley, Dexelation heads to that distance again in the Apache Cat Classic on Saturday.
And the Richard and Chantelle Jolly -trained sprinter won’t mind the wet conditions on Saturday having eight wins and six placings from 19 soft track runs and a win and a second in two heavy track starts.
After a luckless winter campaign that saw Dexelation run second in the Wangoom Handicap at Warrnambool and the Golden Topaz at Swan Hill, the sprinter has been rejuvenated this time around.
“I put him in a 1000-metre race here thinking it would be too short for him,” Richard Jolly told RSN.
“I thought he’d run well but he ended up nabbing stablemate All Banter on the line.
“I thought ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t try and fix it’ so we had another go at the thousand at The Valley, going through the same process, keeping him fresh, and he jumped out of the ground again.
“So, we’ve gone with the same theory again, and kept him to the thousand again, but it’s going to be more beneficial being wet as that will suit him even more.”
A veteran of 42 starts that has netted 11 wins and more than $475,000 in prize money, Dexelation has been enjoying his changed training routine.
Jolly has moved away from a lot of galloping and has mixed up his work.
“He’s won plenty of races over 1200 metres, but he’s also been beaten a few times over the 1200 by wanting to over-race a little,” Jolly said.
“I think now, he’s always been a sound horse, but we’ve just backed off the work a little, he spends a lot of time at the pool and the water-walker and just one gallop every now and then.”
Craig Williams, who rode two-year-old See You In Heaven to victory for the Jolly’s at Flemington during Melbourne Cup week, will ride Dexelation on Saturday.
