SPRING agony is set to turn into autumn ecstasy for connections of talented Testa Rossa galloper Speediness who is beginning to deliver on his potential as he closes in on the Group 2 VRC Blamey Stakes (1600m) in two weeks time.
The Pakenham trained gelding was on target for some rich pickings during last year’s spring carnival but was unable to achieve his goals after a dreadful series of mishaps curtailed his ambitions.
Now, with two recent runs under the belt – both of them wins – the son of Testa Rossa has turned the corner and is ready to tackle the big time, albeit later than originally planned.
”We set ourselves goals in the spring but it went pear shaped for us,” trainer Colin Scott explained.
”Speediness got a virus early on after he’d been in work for about six weeks and we had to put him back out again.
”We tried a few things to get him right but he wasn’t coming right.
”When we did get him back in he was going good and ran first-up in the Testa Rossa but it was the day when the track was really hard and he jarred up really badly.
”It was actually a great run considering and after that he picked up a low grade lung infection.
”By the that time we’d missed enough work and we weren’t going to get to the places we wanted to go so I had a discussion with the owners and I said, we do the right thing by this horse and he’ll do the right thing by us and they said fair enough, and we put him out.”
Scott had plenty of time to plot Speediness’ comeback and earmarked two races, one at Sale, the other at Flemington last Saturday, in an effort to raise the horses’ rating.
With a couple of outstanding wins on the board, Speediness has proven worthy of a crack at the Blamey Stakes at Flemington two weeks from tomorrow.
”His form over the mile is great,” says Scott. ‘He has had two runs over 1600m for a convincing win at Sandown and the other time he ran second to Sincero in the Scone Guineas.”
Clearly Scott has only the highest praise for Speediness but others too including champion jockey Glen Boss who has ridden him in his last two wins hold the horse in high regard.
”After Sale Glen said to me that there is a really good race in this horse,” Scott told us,”he said at worst that he is a Group 2 horse.
”Everyone who has ridden the horse has really liked him. Corey Brown has huge wraps on him and Craig Williams said he thought he was a genuine Group horse.”
Should Speediness be able to snare the Blamey, he will become Testa Rossa’s 41st stakeswinner and continue a fabulous year for the Vinery Stud resident.
