He has promised the world and only delivered an atlas but a new-look Garibaldi may be poised to finally live up to his early promise.
The recently gelded Garibaldi and stablemate Socialising were singled out by leading trainer Tony Gollan as the star performers of his runners who stepped out at the Eagle Farm barrier trials last week.
“Socialising is coming back for her second prep with us and I thought she was really good,” Gollan said.
“The other horse I liked from the trials who has come back two stone lighter is Garibaldi, who I thought looked really good.”
Garibaldi create a huge impression when he was successful at his debut at Eagle Farm in February last year but has been out of the winning list in 12 subsequent starts.
Gollan thought enough of Garibaldi after that Eagle Farm victory to target the Sydney autumn carnival where he finished fifth to Tenley in the Pierro Plate at Randwick.
The four-year-old cruised home an easy winner of an 800m barrier trial at Eagle Farm last week, indicating he will be a force to be reckoned with in sprint assignments for Gollan during the summer carnival.
Socialising arrived from Victoria as a class one winner but blossomed in Gollan’s care last campaign winning three of her four outings, culminating in a city Saturday-grade victory at Eagle Farm in August.
Bleu Zebra, another of Gollan’s team, was untroubled to win her 800m heat in 44.71 seconds, the fastest for the session.
