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McIlrick Not Reading Into The Goss

3 minute read

Canberra based trained Trevor McIlrick is keeping his feet firmly on the ground when it comes to the future prospects of two-year-old Got The Goss after it proved ultra impressive on debut.

Arriving on the scene earlier last month with an emphatic eight length trial win, Got The Goss would prove successful in living up to the hype when spacing his rivals by four lengths at Thoroughbred Park.

Making his debut against the older horses the son of Eavesdropper showed a dazzling turn of foot to sprint clear of his rivals however McIlrick is not one to get carried away with the win.

"He was pretty impressive but the horse he beat was also on debut and the horse that ran third was only having its second start so it's hard to get a good gauge on the depth of the race," McIlrick said.

"He's got over his first hurdle and now we'll just see if we can find a race for him in the next couple of weeks and if he goes well in that then our opinion may get a bit better but at present he's just won a weak maiden at Canberra in my opinion.

"He definitely goes alright there is no denying that but you've still got to look at the form behind him."

Although the form out of the race remains questionable there is no denying the stopwatch with Got The Goss recording a quicker closing sectional than the earlier 1000m race and only a marginal slower time.

"The best part of his performance at Canberra was that his last three furlongs was quicker than that of the other 1000m race on the day which gives you a bit of heart but he's still got to step up to the plate next start to continue on," McIlrick said.

While he may have appeared to have won the race with considerable ease McIlrick emphasised how much the win took out of his juvenile.

"People say he won easy but he did run time which takes a lot of them and there's no such thing as an easy race and we've given him the adequate time to recover," McIlrick said.

"The owners are in no hurry and he's bred to be a bit better as a three and four-year-old so that's why we haven't rushed to find another race for him yet."

Likely to line up against his own age next start, McIlrick feels he still has plenty of improvement left in him moving forward.

"He's still got a bit to learn, he got lost a bit around the turn and didn't do a great deal until he balanced up and went in a straight line," McIlrick said.

"We'll look for a race in the next couple of weeks and if he can go well in that then we might aim a bit higher but at this stage we are just taking it one step at a time."


Racing and Sports

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