3 minute read

It's not often you see a horse compete in the Canberra Cup and a few months later prove competitive as a sprinter but then there is Micalong.

One of a handful of gallopers currently with Canberra based trainer Mick Miladinovic the now rising seven-year-old has overcome a series of foot abscesses to bounce back to arguably his career best form, much to the delight of stable foreman Anthony Georgopoulos.

"He has had a lot of problem with abscesses in his feet and more or less we weren't able to get him right until really his last few starts," Georgopoulos said.

"Due to this continuing issues we've had to keep him fresh, we've been swimming the horse and been doing very little with him on the track.

"On potential he hasn't quite been running up to his best form until his last few runs so it's been great to see him back in form again."

Having proven himself over the middle distances the son of Zariz notched up his first win short of the mile last start when saluting at Canberra over 1280m.

"He would have surprised a few people with his last win you don't expect a horse like him to come back in distance the way he has and still have the ability to sprint as well as he did especially at his age," Georgopoulos said.

Unbeaten in all three attempts on the Acton track Georgopoulos said they will now look to take full advantage of his home track edge on Friday.

"He has shown us he definitely has the ability to sprint well when fresh and given he is unbeaten on the Acton track we've elected to race him on Friday rather than at Goulburn a week later," Georgopoulos said

"He knows the ground and is very comfortable on it, once he finds his feet it's really hard to halt his momentum and he always works very well right to the line.

"His record on his home track is probably something we haven't taken full advantage of until now."

Having competed in a number of Country cups throughout his career, Georgopoulos is now confident he is slowly getting back to his best and is close to the form which saw him take out last year's Orange Cup [1600m].

"Once we can fully get him over these feet abscess problems I'm confident we'll see him run right up to his best," Georgopoulos said.

"I think the horse is looking more and more like the horse who won the Orange Cup every day."

Set to line up in open company at Canberra on Friday, Georgopoulos remains confident Micalong can again prove competitive over the sprinting journey.

"He showed us last start that he has the ability to match it with his rivals as a sprinter and we've got a very fresh horse going into Canberra on Friday," Georgopoulos said.

"I'm fairly confident he's a big chance heading into Friday's race."