Gold Coast trainer Alicia Willick plans to return to her home town of Taree on a NSW country Cups campaign with Silent Movie following the six-year-old’s narrow win at the Sunshine Coast.
Rejuvenated gelding Silent Movie relished the slow conditions to finish too strongly for a head win over Dual Chamber in Saturday’s Contour Consulting Engineers Handicap (1600m).
Mr Slick was a further 1-1/2 lengths away third.
Willick admitted she was worried Silent Movie wouldn’t pick up Dual Chamber when the Toowoomba mare looked set for victory halfway down the straight.
“I thought I was having a heart attack at the 200 metres,” she said.
“I didn’t expect him to be so far back.”
Willick said Silent Movie has been a dream horse to train but had his share of injury problems last campaign.
“After he won a race at the Gold Coast in January last year he tore all his back muscles so we had to put him out for a year,” Willick said.
“He’s been a different horse ever since.”
Willick hails from Taree on the NSW mid-north coast and her dream is to return in August for the Taree Cup (2000m) with Silent Movie.
“I’d love to go back to my home town and win the Taree Cup with him,” she said.
“I then want to take him around the NSW country circuit and look at their Cup races.
“After Taree he’ll go for the Wyong Cup and then hopefully we’ll look at the Newcastle Cup.”
Willick has managed Silent Movie well and hopes to transform him from a moderate sprinter into a stayer.
“Last campaign he was purely a sprinter but he’s learned to relax a lot more now and settles in his races which has helped him run further,” she said.
Silent Movie, who took his record to seven wins from 31 starts, is owned by former NSW TAB boss Gary Pemberton.
“Gary is my number one supporter and it’s a thrill to win a race for him,” willick said.
AAP TURF
