On a day of heavy rain at Newcastle, trainer Darren Smith waited patiently until race 8 to send out Dynamic Syndications runner
FULL BLAST as favourite on a waterlogged and deteriorating racing surface for a first run back after 207 days off the scene.
We came, we saw and we conquered !
FULL BLAST won the SMIRNOFF Bm 65 Hcp 1200m on 27/1/2013
FULL BLAST went out a $5.00 favourite and made the race his own scoring a comfortable 1.3 length win.
However as simple as it appears in the results column, it was far from that during the day, as a series of issues kept the intrigue happening right up to starting time.
Heavy overnight rain in Sydney had not been received at Broadmeadow by scratching time with only 10 mills having been recorded and the track just into the Dead 4 range. However between then and race 1, the rain tumbled down and the track did its best to soak up what it could but the reality was the track was downgraded to a Slow 7 surface before the first.
Then with the track downgraded several scratchings were added to the originals and the field reduced in size.
We had booked Josh Parr to ride Full Blast but he became ill after riding in race 5 as a result of hard wasting to make the riding weights. Darren Smith was notified on course prior to race 6 we had to change pilot. A review of who was available revealed Hugh Bowman had become free after his mount was scratched so we grabbed Hugh. We felt sympathy for Josh as we felt he was missing out on a top prospect and that's how it unfolded.
From a fitness perspective, we had been confident that Full Blast could finish in the mix on a dry track but with the rain tumbling and resuming in this, on the final race on the card, was going to be a challenge. However we remained focused on the fact Darren had given him 3 trials leading into the race, we were also confident he could not have him any fitter first up.
Then we had another conundrum. We had to compete in an event that speed maps had us getting back in the run. Watching the pattern unfold on the day, it was clearly favouring on pace runners. We knew we were not going to land in a forward position but still had to get Hugh to be as close as possible, following the leaders without over taxing our horse and burning valuable petrol. Then come out to be the widest runner in the straight, as the ground was chopping out chooser to the fence.
Hugh Bowman is a master craftsman and we could not have asked for a better ride. Patiently sitting on the horse the first 100m watching the speed battle unfold upfront, Hugh waited for the leaders to sort themselves out and from back off the pace he rolled closer from the 800m to the 500m to be in a position to attack without using petrol.
As the field swung into the home turn, Hugh was two lengths off a line of 4 in front all of who had started to dash for home. Hugh just rolled Full Blast off the heels of the horse in front and subsequent runner-up Newcastle Miss, who we were spotting 2 lengths and eased to the outside of that runner who had a vital head start on us and a massive 7.0kg pull in the weights.
Balanced and full of running, Full Blast cruised up to the leaders and forged to the front at the 150m. To the credit of the runner up, it stuck on well with its 7.0 kg (4 .75 length) pull in the weights. We were battling hard and running on empty but such was the outstanding job Darren Smith had done with Full Blast , that despite the weight and fitness disadvantage, Full Blast was given a soft time the concluding stages to record a dominant win.
We are delighted for our owners that the horse is living up to his abilities. He has had a few niggling injuries in the past and was resuming off a 207 day spell but ran super.
FULL BLAST has done a super job for connections. This was his 10th race start. His record is now 10 sts: 3 wins, 1 second, 3 thirds and won $51,239 prizemoney.
Congratulations to our team that race FULL BLAST
Dynamic Synd Racing (Mgr: D Watt), G Macdonald, N Loader, D Shepherd, R Robinson, D Guthrie, M Watson, C Head & Dynamic Synd Full Blast (Mgr: D Watt)
It's a great feeling to win any race but with the variables we endured leading into the race, the win for the team was sweeter than most.
This addition of another victory takes Dynamic Syndications tally to:
315 wins and
27 wins for the
2012-13 season.