Flemington specialist Horrifying turned back the clock and returned to top form with a determined victory on Saturday.
It was the fourth win from 11 starts at Flemington for the Shocking gelding, who has also picked up three minor placings at the famous Melbourne track. Horrifying has had a total of 34 starts for six wins, eight placings and $616,827 in stakes.
Almost two years had passed since Horrifying’s last win – a 2500m race at Flemington in August of 2022, which capped a winter sequence of three wins from four starts. That career-best run of form also included a win in the Flemington Cup (2800m), which had its 2024 edition staged on Saturday.
Horrifying went winless in eight starts in between times, prompting a move from the Mark and Levi Kavanagh stable into Lindsey Smith’s beach environment. The six-year-old made an inauspicious start from his new stable with a distant last at Warrnambool in late April, but Saturday was a very different story.
Completing a quartet of winners on Saturday’s card for expat Kiwi jockey Michael Dee, Horrifying settled in third and stuck to the rail around the home turn. He sprinted through a narrow opening along the inside and thrust his head in front with 300m remaining.
Fellow Kiwi-bred Smokin’ Romans fought back hard alongside him, with a host of other challengers lining up across the track to try to reel him in, but Horrifying kept lifting and held on all the way to the finish line to win by a length at odds of $51 with horse betting sites.
“That was just a really good training effort,” Dee said. “We got the right run and were able to come up the inside and hit the front. I wasn’t sure if something would kick back at me, like Smokin’ Romans, but he kept finding and it was a good effort.
“I knew he was a lot better than a $50 chance, from his great form a couple of years ago when he strung together a few wins.
“I came into today’s race with the ambition to try to be positive and put him into the race, and it worked out really well.”
Smith took special satisfaction from Saturday’s win.
“He came to me with the idea of going to the beach,” he said. “He was in great order leading into that first run at Warrnambool, where I thought he would win and he ran a long last.
“I didn’t think he’d stay in my care for long after that, but the owners are very, very patient and they love this horse. They just asked me to keep persevering.
“I tried everything – working him hard, putting him on the treadmill, taking him to the beach. I kept trying whatever I could think of until I ran out of tricks. But in the last couple of weeks I reverted to doing pretty much nothing.
“Obviously he’s been a very good horse in his day and he had suitable track conditions here today.
“I think turning this horse’s form around is one of the stable’s best results. Not many horses run 100m last and then win their next start.
“It was the right day and everything worked out well. We’ll savour this win for now, and then we’ll go again another day.”
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