Caorunn did not quite live up to the New Zealand hype he came with last year, but the Shane Baertschiger camp has not lost hope his true ability will shine through this term.
From the batch of two-year-olds who contested the juvenile races last year, Caorunn, who is named after a Scottish gin, was by far the most experienced and credentialled.
A full-brother of Stephen Gray’s Lim’s Showcase, Caorunn (x Showcasing out of Molly’s Dolly) already raced in Baertschiger’s pink colours back in New Zealand where he recorded three wins (800m to 1200m) from six starts, including one at Group 3 level in the Phoenix Park 2YO Classic (1200m) at Ellerslie at his second-last start (February 20) before he was shipped to Singapore.
Caorunn (Matthew Kellady, No 1) ran a gallant second to Lim's Racer (Danny Beasley) in last year's
Aushorse Golden Horseshoe.
He also contested the famous Karaka Million (1200m), running a meritorious fourth to the Singapore-owned Xiong Feng.
But that was to be pretty much the same tale in Singapore’s equivalents of a two-year-old feature – honest but bettered by smarter juveniles.
After a disappointing Kranji debut as the favourite in one Leg of the Singapore Golden Horseshoe series, the IRT Juvenile Stakes over 1200m on turf (distant fifth to Macarthur), Caorunn quickly redeemed himself in the Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe (1200m) and the Group 3 Juvenile Championship (1200m), running second and third respectively.
They were by no means bad runs, but the general sentiment was they fell a little below expectations. Connections are, however, hoping a longer time to fill out coupled with a few tweaks will spark him up, even if it is still on a trial and error basis at this stage.
“He’s had two barrier trials without blinkers and he went really well. He’s really hit the ground running,” said assistant-trainer Scott Bailey (pictured).
“It’s still 50/50 whether we will take them off at his racing comeback this Friday. We’ve toyed with the idea of leaving the blinkers off, but we’ll see.
“We would ideally like to go forward with such a horse as he’s a got good gate speed but he can also miss the kick a fraction.”
Caorunn is among the entries in Friday’s $60,000 Open Benchmark 67 race over 1000m, and is handicapped at 55.5kgs. While he had a soft trial at his first on January 17, he was ridden more positive from barrier No 1 last Thursday to go and score an all-the-way win from Mighty Kenny (Nooresh Juglall).
“Matthew Kellady will ride him this Friday. He knows him well as he rode him at two of his three local starts and has been riding him in work and his barrier trials,” said Bailey.
“We were looking at a Class 3 race over 1200m on turf, but it was cancelled. To be honest, we would have preferred 1200m first-up and grass, but we had to start him somewhere and we found that Polytrack race over 1000m.
“Obviously, we will have to consider the first Leg of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge, the Sprint race over 1200m. He’s a full brother to Lim’s Showcase, who is more of a sprinter, but we’d like to think he can get over a bit more ground.
“The 1600m (Singapore Guineas) looks far at this stage, but we’ll take it one step at a time.”
