While trainer Bryce Heys held some apprehension watching Zac Lloyd dart through a slim rails opportunity on developing sprinter Banjora at Rosehill Wednesday, the jockey was utterly unfazed.
“Plenty of room,” Lloyd said.
“He’s a big horse, so he needs a bit more room than an average horse. He was just going that well he was able to bulldoze his way in there.”
Banjora duly muscled past, the $2.50 favourite bumping eventual bronze medallist Astronomix ($2.70) aside to surge internally and take the prize by a length over longshot Beau Bandit ($51), perked up at the end.
The jockey and gelding repeated the daring raid for success at Gosford before, prompting Heys to voice preference for positioning the perfect-record runner away from the rail.
“He is more than brave,” Heys said.
“Two starts in a row I can’t say he was looking pretty, and that I had any confidence we’d get the result, despite the horse’s ability, but to overcome that twice in a row now, not many can do it.”
Next up for Banjora is expected to be the 1200m Provincial-Midway Championships qualifier at Gosford on March 14, with a potential follow-up in the 1400m Provincial-Midway Championships Final at Randwick during April.
“I was going to go to the Gosford qualifier for the Provincial Midway,” he said.
“The 1400 might be a query, but I thought against that class of horse, he might be alright.”
“Hopefully he ends up in the Provincial-Midway Championship.”
Heading into Wednesday’s races, Chris Waller and James McDonald stood one victory from 500 in tandem, thwarted closely as Almaaz fell a head short to Fireball Miss while Soverato succumbed late to Aisle Two.
Four further attempts loom at Canterbury on Friday evening.
Discover leading betting sites offering markets for Banjora in the Gosford Provincial-Midway Championships qualifier.