Salerno recaptures early career form to win the last at Randwick

Salerno
The Paul Perry-trained Salerno turned back the clock to show its early career form at Randwick. Photo: Bradley Photos

PAUL Perry prepared gelding Salerno has caused a boilover in the final race at Randwick on Saturday after the four-year-old unleashed a withering burst down the outside to win at double figure odds.

The son of Snitzel was a $43.50 chance coming into the race at Crownbet.com.au, but in a muddling type of race Courtney Van Der Werf held the gelding back as long as possible before pushing it to the line to win ahead of Pro Consul ($7.60 at WilliamHill.com.au) and Lion Couchant, which finished third and returned $3.30 at Sportsbet.com.au.

Despite not tasting success for over 12 months, the win helped Salerno maintain a terrific run of form at Randwick which as seen it win twice across three attempts at Sydney’s most notable track.

A riderless horse threatened to wreak havoc on the race, but incredibly the winner actually collided and ran alongside the winner, but did not impede the run.

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Salerno’s trainer Paul Perry told HorseBetting.com.au that he was concerned the jockey-less horse would have impacted his gelding’s chances of winning.

“I was just hoping it didn’t get up and around me,” Perry joked.

“That was the worry at that stage, wasn’t it? I’m just really glad it didn’t get in front of us.”

The win was Salerno’s first in over a year, but the race displayed why there was a serious buzz around the horse after good early career form.

Perry believes picking and choosing the right graded races is the optimal way to get the best out of the horse.

“For now, it’s just finding the right races for him,” the trainer said.

“If we run him anywhere else he gets that high up in the weights, and I don’t know why when you look at his record because he’s had a long time between wins.”

Perry believes that the early career form that impressed so many might actually be to the horse’s detriment, and that a reassessment of the horse’s grading would assist its winning chances exponentially.

“He won early as a two-year-old in a Saturday race in Sydney but you put him in the provincials and he carries 61 or 62 kilos and he’s not a big horse, so he finds it hard to win.

“So that makes it hard to find the races for him,” Perry added.


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