Brilliant mare Hidden Pearl is on course for a second chance at winning an interstate stakes race after her scintillating comeback win at Eagle Farm.
Trainer Barry Lockwood spent five months plotting Hidden Pearl’s return and his hard work paid off when she beat Pienkna ($7.50) by 4-1/2 lengths in the Tim Bell Memorial (1000m).
Lockwood has a big opinion of Hidden Pearl ($2.70) who joined his stable as a maiden after originally racing in the NSW northern rivers and has now won six races and $212,000 in prize money.
Hidden Pearl hadn’t run since finishing 10th in the Listed Mumm Stakes at Flemington November 5 when she was badly injured.
“She hurt the joint at the top of her rump and it was very serious,” Lockwood said.
“There has been a lot of hard work gone into her comeback and not just from me. It goes back to vet Tim Roberts who treated her in Melbourne.
“He said to make sure we gave her four months in the paddock. Since she came back in we have given her five months to get ready and a few jump-outs.”
Hidden Pearl will run in a Class 6 at Eagle Farm in a fortnight and then head to Sydney for the Group Two The Shorts at Randwick on September 17.
Apprentice Bridget Grylls had an armchair ride on Hidden Pearl and declared her back to near her best.
“She is a little superstar. She just loves to race and was always going well,” Grylls said.
Trainer Brett Cavanough’s decision to take blinkers off The Monstar ($3.90) had immediate success when the gelding won the National Jockeys Day Handicap (1200m).
Cavanough, who has been training out of Toowoomba while his new Scone stables are being built, believes The Monstar can be a player in the Sydney and Melbourne spring carnivals.
“I have been wanting to take the blinkers off for some time and finally decided we might as well try it while he was up here,” Cavanough said.
