With winter approaching and Melbourne racing in the off-season, a German-bred import creates a lot of interest at Sandown.
Global Gentl makes his Australian debut in Saturday’s Le Pine Funerals Plate (1400m) for training partners Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young.
He comes to Australia having raced in Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia.
“He’s got an interesting background,” Busuttin said.
“He’s owned by the ownership group that has Lord Lumberjack with us and they’ve been involved with other European horses like Our Ivanhowe and Exospheric.
“He arrived last year and had a bit of a preparation.
“He didn’t do a lot. We just got him in the stables, got him going but a few of these Europeans can take a bit of time to acclimatise.”
While Global Gentl hasn’t been seen in any official trials, Busuttin said the gelding had had a couple of jump-outs on his home track at Cranbourne.
He said the stable was happy with how the four-year-old had progressed but is expecting the 1400 metres to be too short.
“Sandown’s just down the road. It’s a nice big track and a nice place to give him a kick-off,” Busuttin said.
“I’d say we’ll learn more about the horse after Saturday.”
Busuttin said there were no big targets in mind for Global Gentl and as a lower-rated European import he had been bought to win races and see what level he could achieve.
Global Gentl is the only Sandown runner Busuttin and Young have with two-year-old Padraig running in the Seven News Plate (1400m) at Randwick.
Padraig finished third at Warwick Farm on May 17 which was to be a lead-up to the BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes at Eagle Farm on Saturday and a potential start in the Group One J J Atkins Stakes (1600m) on June 10.
“We don’t think he’s a horse that’s going to enjoy a wet track and there’s uncertainty in the way Eagle Farm is playing,” Busuttin said.
“As he was already in Sydney there’s a 1400 metre race on a big track at Randwick so we thought it was in his best interest that we leave him there, give him a run and then see whether we can carry on to Brisbane.”
