3 minute read

Patience has been a key to Auckland trainer Danny Walker getting talented winter sprinter Twilight Dragon back into top racing trim.

A winner of six of his 16 starts, Spartacus five-year-old gelding Twilight Dragon returns to racing for the first time since last August when he tackles Saturday's Scot Thrust 1200 at Ellerslie.

While he hasn't won in either of his last two campaigns and his last win was as far back as September 2013, Twilight Dragon has been an impressive winner of both his trials leading in to his new campaign.

"I'm really happy with him. He's ready if he’s good enough," Walker said.

"Things just didn't pan out for him last year. He was never 100 percent right and twice the jockey got off him on really heavy tracks and said you can't take a line on any horse on a track like that.

"He's had issues with his knee and it's just been a time thing with him. He's been nine months away from the races and we've just had to maintain it by galloping on the grass as much as we can and not put too much pressure on it."

Following that plan, Walker has brought along Twilight Dragon's fitness with the two trials, which saw the galloper score by a length in a 1000m trial at Te Awamutu last month before a narrow Ellerslie 1000m heat win last week.

Twilight Dragon meets a handy field in his return, with the likes of Flower Bomb, The Filly, Salamanca and Elusive Gold likely to be worthy rivals, but Ellerslie is a track where he was won five times previously and he gets the benefit of Rowena Smyth's 1kg apprentice allowance.

Walker will assess Twilight Dragon's run on Saturday before making any further plans but he has pencilled in July's Listed Opunake Cup (1400m) at New Plymouth as a possible mid-range target.