Norich is a firm favourite of trainer Karen Kersley and is fast reaching cult hero status for the rest of us.
If you said that as far back as three starts ago you would have been locked away in a room needing urgent medical attention.
No disrespect to Norich, it’s just taken time for him to reach a surprising but welcome peak.
Such has been Norich’s transformation that his emergence in recent weeks has been one of the feel-good stories of the Ascot Pinnacles carnival.
He hasn’t claimed any of the feature events, Group 1s or millions of dollars in prizemoney, but he’s no longer a flukey winner with a limited future at best to come.
Following three straight Ascot wins over 1200m in the past two months, Norich has without doubt established himself as a genuine racehorse.
It’s taken nearly a half century of race starts to find his groove, but as a six-year-old son of Demerit, it’s safe to declare he’s never raced any better.
His jump and run pattern and a new-found style of racing fast out in front has garnered new fans and for Kersley, it’s testament to her training skills.
She shelved any ego by sticking with the tried and her decision to adopt new tactics has been a masterstroke.
Despite advancing years, Kersley knew, with Norich, she had something to play with and it finally came out on day two of the Ascot carnival in a 1200m handicap.
Norich sizzled and smashed his nearest rival by 4 ¼ lengths but even more impressive was the time run, stopping the clock at 1:08:84secs.
That was race three, later in race eight, Ascot specialist and interstate visitor Overpass won his second consecutive Winterbottom Stakes (1200m) in a time of 1:08:89.
For sure, different race, different opposition, different conditions, but the new and improved version of Norich was showing why his wins could no longer be considered just flash in the pans.
If further convincing was needed then Norich doubled down last weekend and collected his biggest prize purse in the TBWA Stallion Tender Scheme Trophy (1200m), making it a race-to-race-to race trifecta.
Kersley modestly downplays any role she’s played in Norich’s revival and says there has been no magic tricks, no magic formula, no magic wand that she’s waved, stating quite simply it’s just a case of allowing the hose to utilise his best strength.
“He was always running good races, but hard luck stories,” Kersley said on Tabradio.
“I just started to listen to the horse that little bit more.
“I believed he has an extremely high cruising speed.
“I think that’s his best attribute and how we are going to ride him and keep him in those races.
“I think that’s when he’s at his happiest, but I think he can take a sit too, as long as the speed is on.”
While he’s in this rich vein of form, Kersley wants to strike while the iron is hot and is keen to press ahead and kick off Norich’s new year in the same spectacular fashion as he finished 2024.
Two years since arriving at her stables and 39 starts under her guidance, Kersley’s going to roll the dice and take Norich to the next step towards bigger goals.
“If he pulls up okay, I think we really need to look at the Summer Scorcher,” Kersley said.
“I just think we would be mad if we didn’t.
“The way he’s going, he’s hit a purple-patch and you just have to act on it.
“As long as he’s pulled up alright and he’s happy, that’s where we go.”
The Summer Scorcher is run at Listed level for $125,000 on January 1 over 1000m.
It plays host to the Group 2 Perth Cup (2400m) and Group 3 La Trice Classic (1800m).
