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Geegees Blackflash Set For Unlikely Comeback

3 minute read

Tasmania’s favourite galloper Geegees Blackflash is set to defy the odds and return to racing next month.

Geegees Blackflash with his former trainer John Luttrell
Geegees Blackflash with his former trainer John Luttrell Picture: Racing and Sports

Geegees Blackflash, now a 10-year-old, was the first horse to earn $1 million prizemoney without having raced outside Tasmania.

His 22 wins in 66 starts have included two Hobart Cups, Launceston Cup, Tasmanian Derby, multiple feature weight-for-are features and Tasmania’s biggest sprint the Newmarket Handicap.

He was thought to have come to the end of his racing career last year when he was diagnosed with a large bowel tumor that required two operations before it was successfully removed.

However he is now back in work and stepped up his program with a strong gallop at Elwick that left trainer Leon Wells confident the gelding is heading the right way towards a comeback.

“We gradually worked him up to the stage where he was doing evens on the training track but this was a big test,” Wells reported after the gallop.

“He was back at the racetrack and he definitely knew where he was. You can get a much better guide to where a horse is at when they gallop on the grass at a racetrack and he was simply awesome.

“There is no doubt this horse is a freak of nature. He must have won a lot of those feature races with that tumour growing inside him but he is free from all that now and that’s why he looks and acts like a very young horse.

“I couldn’t have been happier with his gallop so we can now look forward to pressing on with plans to race him again.”

Wells said he is planning to give Geegees Blackflash two trials with the aim of starting him first-up in the Newmarket at Elwick.


Racing and Sports

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