THIS TIME THE TRIP WAS WORTHWHILE

TUESDAY: September 22, 2020: NOBODY surely could begrudge Hawkesbury trainer Karen Outtrim a victory with Hidden Ace at Orange yesterday!

Only four days earlier, she had made a fruitless 10-hour round trip to Narromine, seeking to win her second race of the season with recent Mudgee victor Dragon’s Shadow.

Because of safety concerns with a section of the track, the meeting was called off after only two races had been run.

This time, thankfully, the trip to Orange with a stablemate was indeed worthwhile.

Outtrim’s five-year-old Hidden Ace, ridden by Anthony Cavallo, won the Class 1 Handicap (1280m), clinching the second victory of his 15-start career.

A $9 chance, the Hidden Dragon gelding, in receipt of 8kg from $1.75 favorite Temple Run, finished resolutely to overhaul him in the shadows of the post.

Though Hidden Ace had not won since beating another Hawkesbury representative Graceful Zarifa in a Maiden Plate (1300m) at Bathurst last November at only his fourth start, Outtrim gained confidence from a recent Mudgee run that he was on the way back to form.

“Though he was unplaced at Mudgee on August 30 in a similar race over 1200m, the run was much better than it may have looked,” Outtrim said today.

“I took the blinkers off him for that race, and he didn’t have any luck.

“Sometimes taking blinkers off a horse has just as good an effect as it does putting them on, and we gave him a good chance yesterday.”

Outtrim clearly has an eye for a bargain.

She purchased Dragon’s Shadow for $5000 four years ago (and he has returned 17 times that outlay), and Hidden Ace for only $2750.

“I bought him online as an unnamed young horse,” Outtrim explained.

“He had been broken in and was very sound, and it was great to get another win with him yesterday.”

Outtrim never has many horses in work, but has little spare time at present.

She trialled five-year-old mare Deliya, a new addition to her team, at Warwick Farm this morning.

“I’ve got four horses in work; the most I have ever had,” she said.

“Now we’ve got try to win another race with Dragon’s Shadow.”

That may well be on her home track on Thursday as the gelding, who won at Hawkesbury at $201 at only his second start in August 2017, is an acceptor for the Friday’s On The Terrace Benchmark 64 Handicap (1800m).

He is also one of 20 entries for Sunday’s Bathurst Cup over the same distance.