Otago will make his return to racing at Bendigo this Saturday, but do not go looking for the one-time Australian Guineas favourite among the entries for the day’s features.
Co-trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr have selected the $80,000 benchmark 70 as the likely kick-off point for the four-year-old, who will be having his first start in more than 13 months.
It will be a return to where it all began for Otago, who created a massive boom when he won a 1300m Bendigo maiden in December 2023, and Kent said Saturday’s priority was to get him through safe and sound.
“He’s morphed into a beautiful, big, strong four-year-old and he’s probably going to take the run on Saturday given it’s his first run back in over a year,” Kent said.
“Hence, we’re probably going to aim him at the benchmark 70 over 1300 with a claim, hoping that his class might get him there, but realistically he’s going to improve a lot for the run.
“He won on debut at Bendigo over 1300, so we think that suits, but if he gets beaten for a lack of fitness late that won’t perturb us for what we’ve got in store for him.
“As long as he gets back to the races, runs well, hits out properly and pulls up well, then we can look forward to going up in trip second-up.”
Otago, who races under the Roll The Dice colours, has also been nominated for the $130,000 BM84 over 1300m.
The Kiwi-bred won at Flemington the start after his maiden, which catapulted him up Australian Guineas markets, then ran fourth as favourite in the Group 3 CS Hayes Stakes (1400m) before finishing down the track in the Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m).
The son of Ocean Park later suffered what Kent described as a ‘high-end stress injury’ but has been given a long build-up in his return with two 1000m Cranbourne jumpouts resulting in sixth and fourth placings on March 17 and 24.
“Those injuries typically heal really well and it’s not normally a problem for them, but he’s had a long, slow build-up and you can’t replace race fitness with what you do at home,” Kent said.
“We haven’t crunched the horse at home, he’s just been brought up nice and slowly, everything’s been on the bridle, and I thought he trialled quite nicely at Cranbourne.
“He’s got a really nice benchmark rating and, knowing where his ability’s at, we should be able to go through the grades with him but there are no ambitious plans at this stage.”
Otago will add intrigue to the Bendigo program that is headlined by the $200,000 Listed Golden Mile (1600m), but also features the $200,000 Listed Bendigo Guineas (1400m), $150,000 Bendigo Gold Bracelet (1400m) and $250,000 VOBIS Gold Rush (1000m).
