It has been a long and delayed wait for Heart Of Puissance to return to the racetrack but David Eustace is looking forward to the promising stallion getting his career back on track.
The four-year-old will resume in the benchmark 70 race at Sandown Hillside over 1500 metres on Saturday.
It will be his first run since he finished last to Regal Power in the $5 million All-Star Mile at Caulfield in March.
Eustace said Heart Of Puissance needed a good spell after that race as he had jarred up on the firm track.
When he came back into work, they sensed he wasn’t at his best and eventually found he had a rare degenerative gum disease which led to him having the mouth of an older horse with aged teeth.
Eustace is confident that Heart Of Puissance has a bright future and is looking for a forward run on Saturday but warned he’s far from fully wound up.
Heart of Puissance showed enormous potential to win his first two starts and then finished third in the Group Two Sandown Guineas behind Pretty Brazen.
But Eustace said they were taking a low-key approach this year.
“We’re hopeful he can start off a campaign where he can work his way through the grades,” Eustace said.
“He’s had a long time off so he will be ridden so he can be comfortable and allow him to hit the line.
“If that gets him a win, that’s great, but he’ll take a lot of benefit from getting a run under his belt.”
Eustace pointed out that Heart Of Puissance was still lightly-raced and had a lot to learn.
In his previous starts, he has tended to race greenly over the closing stages.
“He’s not a ‘colty’ horse but he can still lack a bit of concentration, which I think we could still see,” Eustace said.
“We think he’s going to want a bit more ground and that’s why we’re starting him off over 1500 metres.”
