It is a long way from the Lingfield racecourse in the Surrey countryside in England to the Birdsville racetrack in the heart of outback Australia, but that is the thirty-eight race journey that the now eight-year-old gelding Without Revenge has taken since winning in his third career start at Lingfield all the way back in November 2020.
On Saturday the Corey and Kylie Geran trained runner will take aim at the Birdsville Cup bringing a resume which includes two wins in England and five wins in Australia (two successive wins for trainer David Vandyke in his first two starts in the country in late 2022 … and three wins for the Geran stable, including wins the Ballina and Nanango Cups).
In late 2023 Without Revenge arguably raced at his best level when finishing fourth in the $750,000 Little Dance at Randwick and runner-up in both the Tails Stakes and the Bernborough Plate … both Listed races … during the Brisbane Summer carnival.
More relevant though will be Without Revenge’s recent form with his last two runs returning that win in the Nanango Cup … in which, it should be noted, he carried 64kg and gave the runner-up Star Chance a 9kg advantage at the weights and a 4.30 length beating.
Then, last time out, Without Revenge returned to town and finished fifth at Eagle Farm in an Open Handicap, coming home just two lengths behind the winner Encoder.
Those last two runs were over 1600m … the race distance of the Birdsville Cup…. and they translated into a promising preliminary to his Birdsville assignment.
There will be another Geran factor in play this weekend, apart from the Geran training partnership.
Jockey Gary Geran has come out of retirement to partner Without Revenge and take on another Birdsville adventure.
He brings heaps of experience and expertise to the challenge having already won the Birdsville Cup twice with back-to-back wins on Just a Touch (in 2011) and Dancefloor Prodigy (in 2012).
A big family celebration could be in the offing.
