TWO GOOD! Zahra wins back-to-back Melbourne Cups on Without a Fight as three horses pull up lame
Without a Fight completed the rare Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double on Tuesday as star jockey Mark Zahra went back-to-back in the big one after…
Talented Kiwi sprinter El Roca looks to have overcome a tendon injury and will return to racing in the Group 1 BTC Cup (1200m) at Doomben on May 9.
His trainer Trent Busuttin said the son of Fastnet Rock has been impressive and had a gallop in between races at Ellerslie in Auckland last Saturday.
He is also set to trial in New Zealand later this month before flying to Brisbane on May 2.
“I would have liked to have run him in the (Victory Stakes) on the Gold Coast on Saturday but we’ve ran out of time and he’s not fit enough yet so we’ll go to the BTC Cup and then into the Doomben 10,000 (1350m) and hopefully then into the Stradbroke (1400m) all going well,” Busuttin said.
El Roca had a respectable finish in the 2013 Caulfield Guineas (1600m), and ran a second behind both Terravista (Liverpool City Cup 1300m) and Dissident (Randwick Guineas 1600m) in 2014.
He suffered a tear in his suspension ligament before last year’s Bobby Lewis Quality (1200m) at Flemington in September, an injury which Busuttin said has now completely healed.
“His injury is 100 per cent, it’s perfect. It’s obviously never good when they have an injury but the prognosis was good as long as he was given the right amount of time,” he said.
“He’s carrying plenty of condition at the moment so we’ll have to tighten the screws in the next three weeks but he’ll present at the races looking good, albeit there will definitely be improvement in him from his first-up run to his second-up run.
“He is a colt and he’s going to have been off the scene for 13 months and there’s nothing like race fitness. While I certainly expect him to run a good race first-up, the Doomben 10,000 and the Stradbroke are the main aims.”
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