Having multiple runners in a big field can be hard work for a trainer, just ask Tracey Bartley.
Bartley saddled up two contenders in the inaugural $700,000 The Four Pillars (1500m) and was cheering himself hoarse as Barossa Rosa hit the front with 250m to go, only to realise a rival was launching late along the fence and about to blouse the field.
Happily for Bartley, that rival was his other runnerKiss Sum and the trainer’s cheering began afresh.
“I thought she (Barossa Rosa) was home,” Bartley said.
“I didn’t know the colour on the inside. I didn’t know it was him. It’s incredible.
“The work that has gone into these horses to have them spot-on for today is relentless and every trainer will tell you that.
“To have two horses run really well in the race is a credit to our staff, the riders, everyone.”
Bartley is best known as the trainer of multiple Group 1 winner Sniper’s Bullet and while he doesn’t anticipate getting another galloper as good, he believes Kiss Sum has a bright future.
The three-year-old was having just his seventh start at Rosehill on Saturday and surged along the fence to claim Dufresne by 1-1/4 lengths with Divine Breath third, another half-length away, just ahead of Barossa Rosa.
Bartley said putting blinkers on Kiss Sum proved a winning move and hoped the lightly-raced gelding could be his best horse since Sniper’s Bullet, whose big race wins included the 2007 Stradbroke Handicap.
“You wait for another good horse to come along. I had mine when I was a young fellow and to get another really serious horse (is great),” he said.
“We work hard. Lots and lots of hours go into these horses, they just don’t make it overnight.
“It’s been a well-executed plan, both horses have run incredibly well. If she’d drawn an alley the mare, they probably wouldn’t have beaten her. That’s all that cost her the race.”
The 55-year-old said he would let the dust settle before deciding his next move but said both his Four Pillars runners were likely to be spelled with Kiss Sum possibly being aimed towards next year’s Brisbane winter carnival.
Different Strokes started a $3.10 favourite but raced well below his best and finished second last.
“He wasn’t himself today,” jockey Hugh Bowman said.