He didn’t adjust to Darwin straight away, but former Victorian galloper New Enterprise is now making an impression for the Peter Stennett stable.
The four-year-old gelding had seven starts for Ballarat trainer Thomas Carberry before having two runs for the Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr stable in Cranbourne.
After winning on debut in a 1300m maiden at Stawell in April last year, the son of Anacheeva finished second over 1500m (Class 1) on the Ballarat synthetic surface in June.
New Enterprise did little in seven other Victorian starts before Stennett purchased the horse via an Inglis Online Sale in February for $4000.
Arriving in the Top End in March, New Enterprise struggled on Fannie Bay’s dirt surface finishing eighth on debut over 1100m against the three and four-year-olds and then sixth over 1200m (BM54) before finding his mojo.
On April 14, he was unlucky to go down over 1600m (BM65) when he in fact led in the home straight after sitting just off the leaders before finishing third behind Eurellydidit and Siakam with 0.4 lengths separating the trio.
On Anzac Day, New Enterprise sat three wide outside Cisalpine and Bartolini along the back straight over 1300m (Class 2) before jockey Stan Tsaikos decided to take charge at the 800m once exiting the back straight.
Holding a handy lead and with a second career win looming, New Enterprise was in great shape at the 200m before tiring – but held on to win by 0.2 lengths from the fast-finishing Cisalpine.
New Enterprise, who finished 13th in a $130,000 race for the three-year-olds at Flemington over 2000m, lines up in his second start over 1600m on Saturday against 0-58 opposition with Stennett agreeing that he took time to adapt to the Top End conditions.
“Typical of anything from down south, most of them want to have a look at Fannie Bay early in their first couple of runs,” he said on Thursday.
“At the moment he seems to be going along pretty well, he has hit some form and he’s going good.
“I think the 1600m is his sweet spot, he’s a real bowling type of horse.
“I expect him on Saturday to be either leading or running in the first three.
“He’s going to be hard to stop, he’s improved a lot in the last couple of weeks.
“He looked real good in that 1600m race – he was well out of his grade at the time.
“He’s up to being competitive against those sort of horses, I reckon.
“When you think about it, that win over 1300m was a pretty good because he sat three wide early and did all the work.
“He wasn’t running away from the line, but he ran a lot further than the second horse did I can tell you that.”
Stennett revealed there is a reason why New Enterprise, who has drawn gate nine in the 10-horse field this weekend, had limited success in his first 11 starts.
“When I got him he was advertised as a problem child,” he said.
“On the Inglis site they had a little comment with the Mick Price stable saying that you have to put an experienced person on him.
“It didn’t take long to work out why, he virtually does what he likes.
“He has settled down a lot since I put ear muffs on him and he’s not half as bad as he was say six weeks ago – he’s calming down a bit.”
Paul Shiers, New Enterprise’s partner in his first Darwin start, returns to the saddle this weekend.
“Shiersy gave him a gallop last Friday and on that performance – which was exceptionally good work – I’m expecting him to win on Saturday,” Stennett said.
“The barrier has done us no favours, it’s a bit of a concern because you don’t get much of a run to the corner.
“I actually said to Paul this morning that we haven’t had any favours with the draw and he said, “That won’t won’t stop him’.
“He’s confident and I’m confident.”
Meanwhile, Stennett confirmed that four-year-old gelding Pacadow could be heading back to Darwin after injuring his offside front leg tendon during the NT Derby (2050m) last July.
After five starts for trainer Patrick Ryan of Grassmere, near Warrnambool, Pacadow debuted for the Stennett stable last June with a three length win over 1600m (0-58).
The son of Dawn Approach then finished eighth in the NT Guineas (1600m) after blowing the start and was sitting in third place at the 600m in the NT Derby a fortnight later before coming seventh.
“He’ll get scanned in July – that will be 12 months,” Stennett said.
“If he scans up alright, we’ll bring him back up here because he’ll have three years of good racing up here.
“He’s been in a nice paddock just outside of Warrnambool with my mate Tim Boon and if his scans are good we’ll train him along the beach for a few months and see how he handles that.
“What he did last year – the form around him has stacked up pretty good.
“He’s a half decent horse for Darwin if he can hold it together.
“In the Guineas he got stuffed around in the barriers and missed the kick, which was the end of him, but he soldiered on.
“In hindsight, we reckon he might have half injured the tendon in the Guineas.
“Wayne Davis, who rode him in the Derby, said to me after the race, ‘I was just going to win the thing at the 800m as we were travelling’.
“Pacadow got to the 600m and that’s when it (tendon) went – he still ran seventh.”
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