Wagga-based trainer Tim Donnelly will have his first runner in Sydney for over two years when Kitzbuhel lines up in The Agency Real Estate Handicap (2400m) at Rosehill.
The last runner Donnelly had run in the metropolitan circuit was Pontmain, who placed in a Highway over back in February of 2019.
The four-year-old has only had three starts on Australian soil but was won his last two in-a-row at his home track of Wagga, in impressive staying performances.
Donnelly said his son of Medaglio D’oro isn’t like the Europeans he’s trained in the past.
“I’ve had a couple of Europeans before, but I got them second hand and they were a bit quirky,” he said.
“This bloke, if he arrived on your door, unless someone told you he was from Europe you wouldn’t have known.
“He’s as tough as anything. I was saying to the owner the other day that he’s like a Kiwi horse of 40 years ago.
“Really tough, he can give you a lot of work, he loves it. He’s a big strong horse.
“They’re not as big-of horses as the Australian horses, but when you see him in the parade ring, he’s a bloody good-looking horse.”
The Wagga-based trainer was hoping to keep Kitzbuhel in the country ranks for another start but was forced to head to the city after going up 11 benchmark points from his two wins.
The four-year-old has built an impressive record of three wins and four placings from just 10 starts.
Donnelly expected the gelding to improve after breaking his maiden in the UK.
“He’s only just turned four so there looked to be improvement in him,” he said.
“He was only racing on the synthetic, but comparable to other horses that have come out here, I think Tom Melbourne when he won his maiden it was on the synthetic as well.
“He’s just adapted well which a lot of them don’t when they first get out here. This bloke certainly has.”
Donnelly is a Group-1 winning trainer, having won the 1998 George Ryder Stakes (1500m) with Quick Flick.
Whilst he’s not pushing Kitzbuhel to those heights just yet, he has set his sights on the Country Classic in a few months’ time.
“There’s the Country Classic over 2000m for country trained horses only, so I’d freshen him up and probably run him in that second-up or even first-up,” Donnelly said.
“Just because it’s at set weights, so he’d be reasonably well-placed in that.
“Obviously being from Wagga, we’d like to aim for a Wagga Cup, but he’d have to go into that very fresh.
“To me, against city class horses he’s a mile and a half horse, maybe even a bit further.”
Article from JustHorseRacing.com.au