Atomic Force trialled impressively this morning at Warwick Farm, winning heat 7 by 3/4 of a length x 3/4 of a length, in 47.5 secs on a dead track for the 800m journey. Second was La Remlap (Christian Reith) and third was Malambo (Hugh Bowman).
He won very easily without being pushed along. He would have recorded the fastest time of the morning had this been our goal but simply, we didn't need to. We are trying to win Group 1 race on New Year's Day not barrier trials in fast times.
Atomic Force jumped away okay in the centre of the field and worked over to settle second on the fence from the leader La Remlap who raced on our outside, Nash was happy to lob along here in transit.
Nash had a good hold of Atomic Force and he looked to be cantering the whole way around. Upon straightening, Nash stuck to the rail and allowed the horse to pull himself up to the leader in the straight, before releasing the brakes 100m from the post, where the horse dashed up quickly to hit the lead and pull away from his competitors in the run to the line. Looking at the work from the grandstand, we were most impressed with what we saw.
Upon returning to the stalls, Nash had a big smile on his face. His first comment was that Atomic is a lazy, laid back dude and only does what he has too, but gee he's good, so strong and powerful and Nash said he can't wait for raceday. Nash reported that he is spot on target and will be very competitive in NZ. He further commented that the horse jumped out and was very lazy so he didn't want to push him to go forward and teach him a bad habit before going to NZ. Therefore he just let him bowl along under his own steam, upon straightening he said that he wasn't keen to go up and get into a head to head clash with leader La Remlap in the straight, so he waited until the last 100m before he let the brakes off and the horse dashed quickly under its own steam and cruised to the front. After reaching the winning post Nash asked Atomic Force to keep going for a further 50m to really blow out the cobwebs. Nash was mindful of the fact that we have to go 1200m in NZ and the trial had been so easy to that point that he wanted to apply the acid for a few extra strides to give him a good hit out.
Trainer, jockey and manager - all 3 were very happy with the trial. The horse looks spot on for his trip to NZ and is right on his ultimate fighting weight. He has tightened up after his Canterbury win 3 weeks ago and has got rid of his bit of extra pudding he was carrying prior to last start. So we couldn't be more excited about the task ahead of us.
We believe we have a world class sprinter (not just a really nice horse) who is going super and only bad luck or an undislosed freak stands in-between Atomic Force and another possible Group 1 result in the coming weeks. Winning Group 1's on the big days is what it's all about, being able to travel a horse overseas is what dreams are made of and to have a horse good enough to travel is a Dream come true. Only a handful are ever good enough. Darren has turned Atomic Force from a provincial plodder to a world class runner. We wish all owners the very best of luck in the coming weeks.
Atomic Force fly's out to NZ next Wednesday 21/12. Retired jockey Shane Treweek, Darren's foreman and also Atomic Force's track rider, will travel on the plane with Atomic Force.
We are unsure what to think about our Kiwi opposition. It's hard to line up the form both sides of the ditch. Leading Kiwi journalist Jack Petley was on the phone not long after the trial. He confirmed what we knew that our other Aussie competitor Ortensia has been scratched this morning. Jack advised on the strength of the Australian formlines, he expected Atomic Force would have started favourite with Ortensia second favourite but now with the mare being scratched, he expects Atomic Force will start a very warm favourite.
NZ Bloodstock also confirmed this morning that Atomic Force is the only Australian horse going over to the meeting. The other nominated Aussie runners have withdrawn.
As we said previously, "Fate Works In Mysterious Ways." We still can't figure out how we missed the trip to Hong Kong and then when we watched the race unfold, we were more bewilded as we have no doubt that on times and sectionals we would have been very competitive against the first 3 across the line. Now we head to NZ with a live hope to grab something very special.
Most importantly, we will try and restore some Aussie pride in the sporting arena since the Kiwi's have knocked us Aussie's off in Rugby and Cricket recently. It's about time we we turn this trend around.