Ferro Nero, aka Basil, scored his fourth victory on Wednesday on Blue Sapphire Stakes Day at Caulfield.
On paper, you can be excused for thinking Basil mixes his form. Since June his form reads 89661551. But his trainer, staff and owners know that many of those performances in finishing fifth and sixth were more creditable than how it reads.
“He is a talented but quirky horse who needs the right jockey riding the right race at the right speed on the right track”, is how Nigel best describes this son of Waikato Stud’s Savabeel. We have written about Basil several times before on this website, and Wednesday was another example of everything falling into place for Basil to record his second metropolitan win this campaign – his third metro win of his career.
Credit must go to Michael Walker. Last start at Caulfield in a higher grade race (BM84), Basil was exposed perhaps a little early, swooped but then seemed to lose a bit of interest over the final 50m. Sometimes we need to trick Basil a little, and that’s exactly what Michael did on Wednesday, taking some inside runs around the corner but still committed to get to the outside of horses in the straight where Basil likes it best.
Each preparation Ferro Nero has improved. Mentally, he is now a mature horse behaving perfectly with a rider on his back and on raceday. Perhaps he will never learn his manners with our ground staff in his box, but we still love him dearly and think he can win plenty more city class races.
Nigel will discuss with connections in coming days, regarding his next run. There are several 1800m and 2000m options at Flemington over the carnival, or perhaps even the Bendigo Cup on 26 October.