The well-travelled Onesmoothoperator, will have his first race start out of his new home base at Bendigo when he tackles the $300 000 Group 2 Blamey Stakes over 1600m at Flemington on Saturday.
The USA bred gelding has both a Geelong Cup and a Moonee Valley Cup win behind his name. Those successes came in different years … 2024 and 2025 respectively … when Onesmoothoperator raced in Australia as an international raider for his then North Yorkshire based trainer Brian Ellison.
The follow on from both of those runs was Onesmoothoperator’s targeted Grand Final in the Melbourne Cup, which he duly contested, finishing unplaced in both of those starts.
The decision was then made to allow the son of Dialed In to stay in Australia and transfer to the Tim Fitzsimmons stable … Fitzsimmons, himself being a relative newcomer to the Australian training ranks after being forced to relocate following a highly successful training career in Singapore when that racing precinct was closed down.
Fitzsimmons, who won the Singapore Trainers’ Premiership in 2022 and who brings plenty of experience and expertise into play, has brought Onesmoothoperator along to this kick-off point in a measured manner.
As a lead-up to the Blamey Stakes, Fitzsimmons has given Onesmoothoperator one jump out, over 1200m, and one trial, over 1400m. He won them both.
So, while allowing the 1600m would appear to be well short of Onesmoothoperator’s preferred distance … his six career wins have come over distances ranging from 2050m to 3320m … he does have freshness on his side.
We might have to take that distance assessment on trust though as, quite incredibly, in forty-seven starts, Onesmoothoperator has never raced over a distance less than 2000m.
Harry Coffey, who rode Onesmoothoperator in his last start for Ellison in the 2025 Melbourne Cup, as well as in both his recent jump out and trial, will ride the gelding again on Saturday.
