Presently All Heart, Especially Against Favourites

Sun Herald

Sunday January 2, 2005

By DARREN PRENDERGAST RANDWICK

THE Bruce McLachlan-trained Presently, the horse with a heart on his rump, took advantage of a helter skelter early place to swamp its rivals on the line to win the listed Carrington Stakes at Randwick yesterday.

As always, Presently, entered the parade ring before the feature sprint baring a heart-shaped motif decorated with red sparkles on its rump which complements the red heart imprint on the jockeys silks of the gelding's managing part-owner John Cornish.

Presently's swooping victory broke the heart of favourite backers, who again missed their target when the Bob Thomsen-trained top pick Resistor failed to figure among the placegetters.

Cornish admitted the hectic pace set early in the 1000m dash played into the hands of Presently, which has been brought back to sprint distances after failing to prove himself over trips ranging from 1400m to 160m last preparation.

"The way the race was run certainly suited us," Cornish said.

"I think he has proven to be a better sprinting horse and that's why we've brought him back to the shorter trips this time.

"He just didn't respond to being trained to get 1400m and a mile [1600m], so Bruce decided to give him a good break.

"He [Presently] has been kept fresh . . . and done a lot of swimming. He doesn't do a lot of work on the track.

"So to get the result today is great."

Presently relished a drop in weight on his eye-catching first-up run at Canterbury last month.

The six-year-old dipped five kilograms on his return performance. However, after yesterday's overdue success Cornish conceded Presently was again likely to rise in the weights.

Cornish said the connections had no major autumn plans for Presently which proved too strong for the Muswellbrook-trained Lucky Night and last year's Carrington Stakes runner-up Sir Canny.