Clinton McDonald has decided to put on hold plans to send his sprinter Star Patrol to the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint (1200m) in Dubai on March 30.
Despite an impressive season where the five-year-old gelding clinched victories in both the Group 2 Bobbie Lewis Quality (1200m) and Group 2 Gilgai Stakes (1200m), his performance waned with a last-place finish in the Group 1 Champions Sprint (1200m) at Flemington in November.
“I wasn’t 100 percent happy with him, so we’ve elected to give him a little break and let everything settle down,” McDonald explained to Racing.com.
He elaborated, “There’s nothing untoward with him other than he didn’t spell well and that affected how he returned to work as it didn’t really gel.
“In a nutshell, he wasn’t quite at his best, so I’m going to give him a break and when he’s ready he can return to work.”
“I’ll be guided by the horse. They don’t get a long time from the spring to the autumn, plus he had a virus after the Champions Sprint.
That busy time flattened him a little bit and he just didn’t do as well as I was hoping. He needs some time off, which could be for a short period, and then we could look at the Queensland and Adelaide Carnivals with him.”
Star Patrol is listed as a $51 chance in futures markets with top horse racing bookmakers for The Everest (1200m) in October.
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