Racing brought Magnaspin to peak fitness and, coupled with a positive ride from Jamie Melham produced an all-the-way win at Caulfield.
The Leon and Troy Corstens and Will Larkin-trained galloper broke through for his first win since May last year when successful in the A Caulfield Kind Of Summer Handicap (2000m) on Saturday.
Taken to the lead by Melham after 200m, Magnaspin ($3.90) dug deep to score a half-length win over the $2.70 favourite Jenni’s Meadow with Regal Lion ($15) a short-neck away third.
Larkin said Magnaspin required racing this preparation to knock him into shape while at the same time getting the gelding to settle to run out 2000m.
“Last preparation he was wanting to get it over and done with and wasn’t finishing his races off,” Larkin said.
“We elected to give him a really good break. He had eight weeks in the paddock and we built him up nice and slowly so there was a lot of fitness benefit from each run.
“If you ask him for too much of an effort early in the preparation it gets him over-racing, so to get him out to this trip we needed to get his head down and start settling, and he’s really done a good job of it.”
Larkin praised Melham’s ride on Magnaspin allowing the gelding to roll along at his own tempo.
“You leg her on and you have a lot of confidence in the rider,” Larkin said.
“She summed it up really well, she just let him come across early in the race and she rated him really well.”
Larkin said the stable has no specific plans with the gelding but hope to maybe pick off a Listed race this campaign.
The co-trainer doubts whether Magnaspin will be tried any further than Saturday’s winning trip.
“He’s got a tricky rating,” Larkin said.
“You don’t plan anything for these types of horses. It has been a long time between wins for him, so he’s had to get his rating down for him to get into races with the right weight.
“Things are going to get a little bit harder from here on out when the better horses start to step out, but we’ll have a look at the races that are around and a 2000-metre Listed race wouldn’t be out of the question.
“We tried him over further as a three-year-old over 2500 metres at Moonee Valley, but we thought his last 200 metres was a touch weak, so we think the 2000 metres is his trip and we’ll probably save him for that.”
