Early on, Dubbo trainer Peter Nestor developed a good opinion of Murphy’s Blu Boy gelding Lucky Murphy.
Nestor’s belief was vindicated when Lucky Murphy impressively won a Country Plate at Mudgee on debut in December last year.
Unfortunately for Nestor and the gelding’s syndicate of owners, Lucky Murphy then suffered a suspensory ligament problem and was sidelined for a lengthy period.
At his home track on Thursday, Lucky Murphy is primed to make up for lost time in the Trent’s Electrical Service Class Two Plate (1405m).
The gelding put the writing on the wall second-up this preparation with a luckless half-length second to Bella Filante in a Benchmark 60 event over 1200m at Warren on November 11.
“He was unlucky at Warren,” Nestor said.
“He’s always been a bit slow out of the barriers but it was more lack of experience than anything that beat him.
“He wouldn’t take a couple of runs that opened up for him.”
Lucky Murphy settled 10th of the 11 runners then ran into a traffic jam in the home straight, eventually pulling across heels at the 150m and flashing home late to just miss.
A $3500 purchase at the Dubbo yearling sale, Lucky Murphy is described by Nestor as athletic.
“That’s why I liked him as a yearling. You could see he would develop into a nice horse,” he said.
“With the suspensory injury, we’ve just got to manage him right but he’s trained on good and the 1400 metres on a big track like Dubbo will suit him.”
Nestor said he toyed with adding blinkers to Lucky Murphy.
“In the end I decided I don’t want to change his racing pattern,” he said.
“He likes to settle early and get to the line.”
