3 minute read
A decision to treat Markwell Dreamer as a pure short courser has been a masterstroke by trainer Joe Burges and he hopes the gelding can be rewarded with a win at Kensington on Wednesday.
In 13 starts since last October, Joe Burges has only raced the six-year-old over further than 1000m twice and it's resulted in two wins, including one under 64.5kg, and eight placings.
So after an eye-catching first-up second on the Kensington track two weeks ago, Burges was encouraged to find another city test and he'll aim to go one better in the Best Of Bordeaux @ Coolmore Handicap (1000m).
On the back of an 1100m Highway win at Randwick in early 2022, Markwell Dreamer started one of the favourites for the Mid North Coast Country Championships and it was then it became apparent to Burges that the shorter trips were more his cup of tea.
"He's a deadest genuine sprinter, a speed horse, and he's been really consistent,'' Burges said.
"I think it's just maturity with him, he's always been such a big strong horse but immature between the ears.
"Once I dropped him back to a 900m at Muswellbrook and ran him over 900m or 1000m I think the worst he ran for a period was second or third.
"Just training him like a genuine speed horse has been the making of him."
Markwell Dreamer, $6.50 with TAB on Tuesday, was beaten under half a length by Biographer first-up and Burges said had it not been for the horse stepping away a shade slowly and having to make his run on the inferior ground the result may have been different.
He ran 33.48 for his last 600m (Punter's Intelligence) and his last 200m of 11.42 was easily the fastest of the race.
But Burges said it proved to him that the gelding is up to the task of a midweek city win and was rapt it took his earnings to over $200,000 – not bad for a $4000 buy.
"I was wary taking that step to midweek in town is a bit of a leap but he was good last start,'' he said.
"He can be a horse that can miss the kick by half a length sometimes and he ended up back where he didn't want to be.
"Jason (Collett) was happy with the horse's last 600m and felt he was probably unlucky not to win anyway."
Burges has a property at Bulahdelah and has recently made the move back to Tuncurry as his training base having prepared his horses out of Taree until around a month ago.
He started out at Tuncurry when he secured a training license but elected to head to Taree to take advantage of the wealth of experience in the training ranks there.
"Tuncurry is a good spot to train,'' he said.
"It was really good to go to Taree with people like Ross Stitt, Wayne Wilkes and Glen Milligan and see a few different ways of training.
"But I'm glad to be back, it's a beautiful big B Grass at Tuncurry."
