Sonny to Trial

ome big news!!

Clive has Sonny lined up for a Trial this coming Thursday at Geraldton.

Since bringing him back in to this final work, all Clive's expectation have been met. He has worked well on the track, and built up fitness to the point that Clive is ready to push him onto his biggest test to date.

The trial result itself is unimportant (unless he runs many lengths from the winner which will leave us scratching our heads...and arses) as this is all about proving he is well educated and does not make a mess with the pressure on. The general plan is to bustle him out of the gates, then let him find his own pace in the race. We will not be pushing him hard trying to do anything more. What we are looking for here is to see how he reacts with all the noise and excitement of many horses around him. We will not worry if he finishes in the middle or the field or just behind it so long as he behaves and shows us he knows how to run.

Up until this point, he has only worked alongside a single horse. He does not yet know what it means to be in a full field with other horses. Thus, a big part of the outcome on Thursday is to see how he handles this step up in pressure.

The training has gone very smoothly till this point. Clive put him through a "jump out" last week, which is like a trial of a trial. Just with one other horse. Roy came back in saying that he felt super and had plenty of petrol left had he asked for it. What this means, and what Clive feels, is that Sonny has the ability to run a solid pace and they believe he still has enough juice in his tank for a powerful finish.

The trial will take place after the last race of the day at Geraldton and Roy McKay will be riding him. It will not be played live over radio or Sky Racing. It WILL be put up onto the WA Turf Club members site. It costs about $100 a year to subscribe to the site that gives access to all the race meetings and replays including trials. I expect to see the trial up there about Wed the following week.

I will be getting a debrief from Clive on Thu evening, and will drop you all a message as to what happened etc.

I'm very excited about this all. The trial is really the pinnacle in the training. After Thu we will know a little bit more and make our forward plan depending on how he comes through the trial.

Giddy Yup

Slacka