Comeback to try his luck at Caulfield
Comeback might not be a great horse for punters but he’s a good advertisement for horse ownership.
The gelding landed his maiden win at Mildura on July 18 after running 10 seconds from his previous 14 starts.
On Saturday, Comeback heads to Caulfield to run in the Helen Egan Handicap over 2000m.
Trainer Shane Fliedner says Comeback has become a bit of a comedy show but is no joke for connections who have racked up almost $72,000 prize money.
A Caulfield win would almost double that with a $44,000 cheque for first and a Super VOBIS bonus of $23,000.
“We were quite happy running seconds,” Fliedner said.
“Obviously you’d like to win a race but when you’re getting good money every time he goes around, it doesn’t matter.
“We thought if he could win a 2000 metre maiden he could then have a run over 2000 metres at Caulfield before turning four.”
Comeback showed earlier in his career he was no slouch, finishing less than six lengths from Mahuta and Holler in a 1400m race at Caulfield last spring.
Fliedner said Comeback felt the effects of a firm track that day and while he ran two seconds in maiden races after, it took a while to fully recover.
“He didn’t spell well and throughout this whole preparation I haven’t been really happy with the horse,” Fliedner said.
“Then we struck a couple of hard tracks not that long ago so I didn’t race him for a month so he’s done a good job running second before finally winning.”
Fliedner believes Comeback’s future will be over more ground than 2000m and he will be happy if there is rain in the lead-up to Saturday.
“He’ll get a mile-and-a-half,” Fliedner said.
“That’s what he does, runs up to them and then just grinds away.
“If he can transfer that into the end of staying races, he’ll end up winning races so you have a roll and see what can happen.”