A local trio’s path towards a breakthrough black type win is on hold – for now.
Hankstar, one of the state’s most improved gallopers, has been withdrawn from this Saturday’s Murray Bridge meeting, slated to be the final lead-up run before his tilt at the Listed C S Hayes Memorial Cup (1600m) at Morphettville on Adelaide Cup Day.
Muscle soreness has sidelined the four-year-old gelding, who has strung together three impressive metropolitan wins for part-time trainer Peter Nolan and apprentice jockey Stacey Metcalfe.
However, Nolan says his stable star will still pursue black type, just a little later than planned.
“I’m going to target the City of Adelaide over 1400m on April 24,” he said.
“That’ll do him this prep.”
Despite the minor setback, Nolan – who somehow fits his training regime in between commitments as as full-time firefighter – remains thoroughly chuffed with Hankstar’s form surge and the horse’s burgeoning partnership with ex-NSW hoop Metcalfe.
“As long as she doesn’t have to ride for her boss, John Hyam, I’d say Stacey will stick with him, including any black type runs,” he said.
“She loves him to death and she’ll be my number one choice, because she gets along so well with him.
“I saw Stacey ride when she first came over and I walked past her down in the tie-ups and said ‘Are you Stacey Metcalfe?’.
“I’d seen that she was a lefthander, that she’s very nicely balanced and that she gets down nice and low on the straight.
“I said ‘I think I’ve got the ideal little horse for you’ – and the rest is history.”
Nolan was particularly animated during a Racing.com interview that followed Hankstar’s most recent win, at Murray Bridge earlier this month, but it was about more than just the horse’s victory.
“It’s a really good story with Stacey and I actually got a bit emotional at Murray Bridge that day – and so did Stacey,” he said.
“You go on gut feel, you tell your owners to be patient, then you put on this virtually unknown jockey, who’s just come over here with a win rate of about 2 per cent.
“I begged them to trust me and she’s executed every one of my racing instructions perfectly. So far it’s a match made in heaven.
“It was a big move for her at 33 to pack her bags and move to Adelaide. A real gutsy move.”
Hankstar’s chances of ever picking up a black type race may have evaporated, had the son of Delago Deluxe raced injured this weekend. Fortunately, Nolan’s faith in heart-rate monitoring – stemming from his time as a triathlete – detected a problem.
“I know that I’ve got a lot to learn as a trainer, but you do watch your horse’s habits and mannerisms and I noticed the other day that ‘Hank’ didn’t quite roll right,” Nolan said.
“And then he hung in slightly during his work
“So, I went home and downloaded his heart rate info and saw that he hadn’t recovered as quickly as he had been.
“I let him cool down, checked his back and said ‘nope, he’s not racing’.
“So that data just supports your theories. It doesn’t do anything miraculous, but I can read it pretty easily after my years doing triathlon, wearing it myself and with athletes I’ve taught.
“The heart won’t lie.”
