Warrnambool winner

By Paul Pickering
COLIN Davies was supremely confident about his chances in last week’s Wangoom Handicap at Warrnambool, and he didn’t care who knew it.
The Cranbourne trainer was driving back to his motel on Wednesday morning and stopped in the middle of the town’s main roundabout to spruik the prospects of his battered old grey, Stanzout, to TVN commentator Richie Callander.
Callander yelled out to wish Davies luck in the Listed event that afternoon, but soon learnt that it wouldn’t be required.
“I said, ‘I don’t think I’ll need it today – he’s home’,” Davies recalled last Friday.
“They thought it was funny, but I told them the horse was going to make his own luck.”
It was a big call, especially when Stanzout was rated only a $16 chance over the 1200m trip. But Davies was vindicated by the seven-year-old’s stunning run in the $100,000 feature.
Davies endured some nervous moments when jockey Danny Brereton put Stanzout – a Group Two winner back in 2007 – in front ahead of schedule, but cheered his stable star home with gusto.
He may have been the least surprised person at the track.
“I couldn’t believe the price,” he said.
“I think I told everyone I know around Cranbourne to back him.”
Stanzout had some pretty useful lead-up form, with a win at Sale and a close second to Orbit Express at Caulfield this preparation.
And when Orbit Express went on to win the Group Three Victoria Handicap the following week, Davies knew he had a contender for Wangoom.
But the Davies’ camp has also had its share of setbacks with Stanzout. When asked to list those ailments, the trainer responds by asking: “have you got a book?”
The eye-catching sprinter was placed in consecutive Group One events in February 2008, before succumbing to a series of injuries.
The most puzzling was a lung infection – brought on by a reaction to the EI vaccination – that reduced him to 60 per cent capacity for an extended period.
“It’s only this preparation that he’s finally starting to put it all together,” Davies said.
“And now that I’ve got him right, I don’t want anything to go wrong.”
Davies, who also had some success with Stanzout’s dam, Stanza Grey, is realistic about the ageing gelding’s prospects, but believes he still has some good racing ahead.
“You’ve got your young horses coming up, so obviously it’s going to be hard to compete in some of the bigger races now,” he said.
“But in races like the (Sale) Quality and the Wangoom he can be very competitive.”
Davies reckons Stanzout is now the best-performed horse he has had.
“I’ve had a lot of other handy horses, but he’s probably just a little bit better than handy, isn’t he,” the proud trainer said.