Twenty-four hours can be a long time in racing, just ask Newcastle trainer Sam Kavanagh.
On Tuesday, Kavanagh was bullish about the chances of his veteran miler Aramayo in the Big Dance Wild Card (1600m) at Randwick.
When the barrier draw came out on Wednesday, he was completely deflated.
“I thought the only way he could get beaten was to draw nineteen, and then he did,” Kavanagh said.
“It’s the Wild Card, it’s our last chance to get in the Big Dance so he has to run.”
Aramayo has been a great advertisement for the niche Kavanagh is hoping to carve with his petite team of 25 at Newcastle.
Bought as a tried horse last year for $100,000, his first three runs for the stable yielded a fifth in The Hunter, a luckless fourth in The Ingham and a stakes placing in Brisbane.
The eight-year-old’s owners have already almost doubled their investment while having plenty of fun along the way.
Without the budget to compete with the major stables, Kavanagh and his partner Kelly, an equine therapist, have filled some of their boxes with tried horses like Aramayo who they hope their combined skill set can revitalise.
“We bought this horse as a seven-year-old and he’s won nearly $200,000 for us and hasn’t won a race yet,” Kavanagh said.
“The whole idea of buying these older horses, and we make sure we rehome them when they’re done, but it gives the owners an opportunity to have a runner on a big day.
“We can get them sound and healthy and happy and just get them to rejuvenate a bit of their old form and give the owners a day out.”
In that vein, Kavanagh began planning Aramayo’s spring program six months ago.
Knowing the gelding loves Randwick – a track where he has placed behind Zaaki in the 2021 Tramway Stakes, finished second in that year’s Epsom Handicap and been luckless in the Ingham last year – the Big Dance became a target race.
Given the Wild Card was also at Randwick, Kavanagh figured that was the horse’s best chance of a ticket into the Cup Day feature.
When Aramayo ticked the first box with a strong first-up run behind subsequent Group 1 winner Rediener in the Bill Ritchie Handicap, Kavanagh replicated what he did last spring, giving the horse a four-week break and trial into Saturday’s race.
It was all going swimmingly, until the barrier draw.
“I’ve spent six months setting him for Saturday and he’s drawn nineteen so I’m a bit gutted,” Kavanagh said.
“Everything about it was the perfect first-up run to peak for his next two and he gets the Randwick mile, which he loves. It’s just going to be tough for (jockey) Chad (Schofield) from out there.
“But there’s the Big Dance, the Little Dance and on the same day there’s a benchmark 1800 (metre race), so he will run Melbourne Cup Day, it’s just what in.”
Racing And Sport’s data shows that from just under 1500 races over the Randwick mile, 62 horses have started from barrier 19 for four winners and 11 placegetters.
