Full steam ahead for Cannyescent towards the Spring Carnival
LINDSAY Park are confident that Cannyescent can continue to rise through the ranks heading towards the Spring Racing Carnival.
Owned by Sona Bloodstock, Cannyescent has won three on the trot, his most recent victory being a determined effort at Flemington over 1400m on June 24.
The bay gelding settled close to the front on Saturday, with apprentice hoop Beau Mertens parking the son of Canny Lad and Juicy second on the outside of the leader.
Mertens said go entering the straight and Cannyescent quickly responded to take the lead, holding off a late challenge from Mio Dio to score by just under half a length.
Cannyescent has now won five of his seven starts since joining the team of David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig at the beginning of the year.
Had a sweet run through and duly delivers! Cannyescent gifts back the #MetroPrem lead to @beau_mertens. Res: https://t.co/MQU64hRmtn pic.twitter.com/GDEm4i7te1
— Racing.com (@Racing) June 24, 2017
Dabernig says the key to Cannyescent’s stellar form is letting him be a horse and keeping him happy off the track.
“He likes the farm environment – he isn’t trained from a stable – he is in an outdoor yard with a shelter which he seems to enjoy,” Dabernig told Horse Betting.
“On top of that we don’t gallop him too hard in the week leading into the race – he seems to thrive on that sort of training.
“He has done a great job – he has won five from seven starts now and he has proven to be pretty versatile.
“He is a great horse to have in the stable.”
Dabernig says the stable are keen to see the four-year-old race throughout the Spring Carnival, which means Cannyescent won’t be headed for the paddock any time soon.
“The lead up races to the Spring Carnival kick off in August so we are going to keep him in work but it will be a bit like a working holiday.
“He will have an easier time throughout the month of July and that way he still has that hard, residual fitness for the early spring.
“He will still stay in light work. We wouldn’t have time to get him back if he went for a spell so this way allows us to race him right through the spring.
“We’ve had good luck over the past four or five years keeping geldings up over long preparations. The key is to space their races.”
With seven wins from 14 starts overall and $280,000 in career earnings, Dabernig believes Cannyescent still has more to offer.
“I am sure he is the type of horse that’s capable of making the step up [to black type racing]. He is still relatively lightly raced and he is a sound horse so hopefully we can sustain that and keep him going.
“To get a run in one of the big races he probably wants to win another race at open company, so hopefully he can do that in the early part of the spring.
“After that we’ll be guided on how he is racing off the freshen up, obviously we don’t want to get too carried away but he is doing everything right at this stage.”