A Country Championships heat will be the next stop for Testator Silens after he took his record to four wins from five starts with a tough performance in the Highway Handicap at Randwick.
The gelding, who started at $9.50, had to track a wide course from an outside draw in Saturday’s 1200 metre race but he didn’t shirk his task, lifting for Jean Van Overmeire to edge out Anethole ($14) by a half-head.
Golden Point ($21) was another half-neck away in a blanket finish.
Trainer Luke Clarke, who prepares a small team at Braidwood in the NSW Southern Tablelands, said the four-year-old would back up in the South East heat of the Country Championships over 1400 metres at Nowra on Sunday week, and he expected the quick turnaround to suit him.
“Perfect. Today will just take the edge off him,” Clarke said.
“That has been my plan the whole way along. I know it has been a bit ambitious to do that, he has never run over 1400 but he will do it, he will do it on his ear.
“He’s a bit of a highly strung horse….If you can get that consistency into him, he loves it.”
Van Overmeire has been aboard for Testator Silens’ past three starts and said his effort to defy a tough run was testament to his class.
He believes the horse can continue through his grades, especially if he learns to settle.
“He is definitely on the up,” Van Overmeire said.
“I would just love him to relax a little bit, to race a little bit more tractably throughout.
“Once we get him to switch off when we need him to, he will go to the next level.”
Hope you tuned in to Saturday HQ at about 6.50am this morning, his trainer Luke Clarke was expecting that
