Punters would be forgiven for thinking the Mitch Beer-trained Golwen was out of form in his first preparation for the Albury-based yard.
But there was more than meets the eye with the former Godolphin-trained gelding, who will take on the $75,000 TAB Highway (1400m) this Saturday at Randwick.
Mitch Beer purchased the son of Lonhro online for $45,000 with hopes of winning one of the state’s biggest country races.
Although his form wasn’t great, an x-ray at the end of last preparation told the story for the four- year-old.
“I originally purchased him to be a Country Championships horse and I was rapt with him last preparation in his first prep with us, but he would sort of mix his form and he was really disappointing,” Beer said.
“He had this old wound on his leg that had come with him when we’d purchased him, and it never really healed but it didn’t seem to bother him.
“We ended up x-raying it at the end of last preparation and we ended up finding a piece of wood in there.
“We got that removed, you’d have to think that it was bothering him, he was never really lame on it, but it was sort of loose and moving around.
“I’ve been much happier with him this preparation and I know him a little bit better, and minus the big splinter, I’m sure he’s a happier horse in work.”
Golwen stormed home to finish third on his home track of Albury when first-up this preparation.
It was his best finish when fresh from a spell in his career thus far, with his previous best finish only a fifth when on debut.
The son of Lonhro’s stats show he improves second-up, and Beer said it was always the plan to send him to the TAB Highway for his next start, despite accepting at Albury earlier in the week.
“As of the morning after his first-up run, the highway was always going to be his second-up run,” he said.
“Just sometimes in those class races, if you get too high of rated class race, they can get in quite well at the weights.
“Where I threw him in, he ended up with 62kgs and then he drew poorly, and I thought ‘no, we’ll just stick with the original plan’.
“It’s always tempting when they’ve got a race that they’re eligible for 250 metres away rather than 460 kilometres away, you count your options.
“The horse worked excellent on Tuesday morning, we’ll stick to the highway and we’ll head in that direction on Saturday.”
Beer will also saddle up New Zealand import Swagger, who is in his first preparation with Beer.
It took the son of Postponed nine starts to break his maiden across the ditch, before being purchased by the Albury trainer.
Beer thought the five-year-old’s career had come to an end two starts ago, until he flashed home to grab second at Albury in his most recent outing.
“He ran Albury Cup day here on a firm track against the pattern, he wasn’t disappointing, but I regret running the horse,” he said.
“I let him get over that and then I took him to Wangaratta, and nothing went right, and the horse went fair, but wasn’t given much chance. I got home and I thought ‘it might be show’s over at the end of the prep’.
“But we decided to run him here at Albury and he was terrific. I think he had 61 kilos and he got a long way back. My other horse won the run but really had the conditions to suit.
“He ran my other horse to a length, and I think the horse that ran fourth has come out and won by 6.5 lengths in Victoria last Saturday and they spanked it.
“His run last start was probably one of the best of his time with us, even though it was a second.”
Golwen drew barrier 18 for the Highway on Saturday, with Keagan Latham taking the ride, whilst
Swagger will jump from barrier 10 with regular rider Jordan Mallyon doing the steering.
