A winning double at Ballarat has got prominent West Australian trainer Lindsey Smith off the mark from his new Warrnambool base.
In the past couple of months Smith has opened a satellite stable at Warrnambool, in the stables formerly occupied by the now-disqualified trainer Darren Weir, while also keeping his West Australian base.
Four-year-old Reykjavik has raced twice in Victoria in the past month for Smith, finishing fifth at Swan Hill and third at Flemington, before Our Wind Spirit and Seven Castles both won on the synthetic track at Ballarat on Tuesday.
Three-year-old gelding Our Wind Spirit, the $3 favourite, finished strongly down the outside in a 1000m maiden to win by 2-1/4-lengths in his second career start while fellow three-year-old gelding Seven Castles started the $1.85 favourite in a 1200m maiden and won by the same margin.
Smith has Reykjavik set to contest Saturday’s Listed Winter Championship Series Final at Flemington, while the trainer’s Warrnambool squad also includes the former Weir-trained multiple Group One winner Black Heart Bart who is on the comeback trail from retirement.
A rising nine-year-old gelding and five-time Group One winner, Black Heart Bart was retired last spring after finished 16th of 18 in the Group One Toorak Handicap.
In an interview on Perth radio on Tuesday, Smith indicated there were still a few steps to get over for Black Heart Bart before he could make a race return.
“He went to the vets on Friday at Ballarat and he passed there so now I can put the stable return in and the vets in Victoria will go through the report then they should allow me to trial him,” Smith told TAB radio.
“And then they will check him after he trials. But it’s pretty simple. We’ll all be able to see the trial and depending on how he trials whether he keeps going or he doesn’t.
“But we’ll all be able to notice that.”
