Trainer Matt Laurie concedes the career of Ranveer is likely to be ‘another one of those stories’, the one of a promising horse that did not quite reach his potential.
But Laurie has not given up hope of Ranveer reaching a higher grade than the VRC & GFA Partnership Sprint (1100m), a benchmark 70 race the gelding runs in at Flemington on Saturday.
A rising five-year-old, Ranveer will be having his seventh start on Saturday after promising a lot as a younger horse.
On debut Ranveer ran second to the speedy Profiteer down the Flemington straight before coming back late in his two-year-old season to win at Sandown.
His early three-year-old season saw him run second to General Beau at Caulfield, before two lacklustre performances saw him disappear from the racing scene for 18 months.
After finishing last in the Group 3 Blue Sapphire Stakes at Caulfield in October 2021, Ranveer was sent for throat surgery.
“He had a throat problem which required two lots of surgery,” Laurie said.
“He came back from that and then got quite sick as a result of the throat surgery in which they can be susceptible to bacteria and stuff like that.”
Laurie was confident Ranveer would make it back to the track after another stint in the paddock and the gelding finally made that return at Mornington in April, finishing second.
“I was keen to keep the ball rolling, but then we became stationary again,” Laurie said.
“His bloods were a bit off. It’s that time of year where there’s little bugs getting around and he wasn’t the only one in the stable affected.
“It’s a pretty common story.”
Given time to get over that ailment, Ranveer had a jump-out at Mornington on May 24 before a gallop on the course proper at Mornington on Wednesday told Laurie he was right to go again.
“He’s fit and healthy, but he’s not tuned right up for it, but he’s a horse with good ability,” Laurie said.
“It’s a steppingstone to see where he’s at and at this stage we’ll just take him through his grades.
“As a younger horse we thought he was smart, but unfortunately, he’s another one of those stories.”
