THE "NEW" DAMASCUS COMES CALLING

Image: Bradley Photos

One is a four-year-old gelding who shed his maiden status at Newcastle yesterday, and the other is a 28-year-old gelding.

Importantly, they’re both looked after by Hawkesbury trainer Mick Attard and his wife Sharon.

“Big Al (the older Damascus Calling, by Salieri) won us a stack of races (a dozen in fact) in Central and North Queensland,” Mick Attard said today.

“We wanted to make sure he always had a home with us.

“There has been a few moves coming back from Queensland, but he is still with us on the farm, and gets two good feeds every day.”

When the Attards purchased a Brutal youngster for $32,500 at the 2023 Inglis Classic yearling sale, they decided to name him after their old warrior.

And whilst it’s taken the newer Damascus Calling eight starts to break through, there are high hopes with him.

“We’re hoping he will be our next Putt For Dough,” Attard said, a reference to his now retired handy sprinter, who in fact was the trainer’s previous winner in a Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1400m) at Royal Randwick in April last year.

“We’ve had a rough trot in the last 12 months or so.

“Putt For Dough had a tendon issue and was retired, and a young Justify filly who had a heap of ability died before even getting to the races.

“Damascus Calling is like his mother White Sage, a grey mare who won five of her seven starts (including the Listed Festival Stakes at Rosehill Gardens in 2013) for trainer John O’Shea.

“He is small and stands only around 15 hands, but has a big heart.

“Everyone who rides him tells us he gives 120 per cent. He is always trying to please you.

“Damascus Calling appreciates the softer tracks, and I tried to win a $100,000 Inglis Xtra Bonus with him at Kembla Grange at his previous start (he ran third to the promising Wild Thoughts, who has since won again).”

There was some sort of “square up” yesterday when rider Grant Buckley never left the fence on Damascus Calling, who started at $10 in spite of placings at his two previous starts, in the Midway Maiden Plate (1400m).

He stayed closer to the inside when others wanted to go wider, and condemned Wild Thoughts’ stablemate Penalties ($1.80 favorite) to his fifth placing from 10 starts.

. HOOFNOTE: Like yesterday’s winner, Attard has a big heart as well, and ample courage to go with it.

He sustained life-threatening injuries four years ago on the first morning of the new season (August 1, 2021) and underwent numerous operations when a young horse (West Elk) he was preparing to race at Kembla Grange that afternoon caught him unawares, and double-barrelled him.

“There’s no more operations, and I still feel pain, but I have had to learn to live with it,” Attard said.

“But I’ve cut back to having only four to six horses in racing trim.

“And we have bred a filly (by Melbourne Group 1 winner Portland Sky) from Crossfire Road, with whom we won consecutive races at Muswellbrook in July and August two years ago.

“She has is now a yearling.”