ORIENZEL – trained by Swan Hill’s Nathan Hobson – is back in the winner’s circle, but it has taken the seven-year-old gelding almost 12 months to the day to get there.
Its 2022 performance in Echuca was a far cry from the speed it showed at the Manangatang picnic meeting on Saturday, when the veteran galloper ran the perfect race to storm home a winner in the $20,000 Kenso Ag Care Handicap over 1550m.
Turning a 10-horse field into a two-horse race for the line, Orienzel took the long way home, covering more ground than any other horse in the race.
But Orienzel’s win was good enough to convince Hobson to set his sights a little higher.
He plans to take Orienzel to Bendigo on Saturday for a 0-58 over 1600m.
“The last win for Orienzel was at the Melbourne Cup day meeting at Echuca in 2022,” Hobson recalls.
“But this time, with Logan McNeil in the saddle, the horse did everything to instructions and got the result he deserved.
“He has been pretty much thereabouts this prep without ever quite winning one but has finally got there again.
“Orienzel has been a good horse for us and has more than paid his way since we picked him up at a sale for just $20,000. This was his sixth win for us and his career prize money has now gone past $200,000.”
Hobson says he also hopes to have McNeil in the saddle for Bendigo after his good ride on Saturday.
The talented apprentice from Kerang concedes he probably covered more ground than any other horse in the race but says that’s the best way to ride him.
“The plan was always to take it easy during the ride and then come from the back and go around them,” McNeil says.
“And that’s exactly how it unfolded and once we straightened up, Orienzel did the rest,” he says.
McNeil isn’t playing loose with the facts when he says he took the gelding “around the field”.
As they came off the back turn, Orienzel was closer to the car park than the running rail, but McNeil eventually steered him towards to the centre of the track for the run home.
But Bendigo is still a week away. Tomorrow, Hobson has his classy Chosen Venture looking to line up in a $150,000 BM70 handicap over 1440m at Caulfield.
He recently took the horse to Adelaide for its metro debut, where it ran a very credible third behind Foster Street at Morphettville.
In five career starts, the four-year-old gelding has now had two wins and three placings, so must be a good chance of a repeat success in a metro midweek.
Its two wins have both come on its home track – one over 975m in March and the other (also over 975m) last month, and Robert Beattie was at the controls for both victories. Placings have come at Swan Hill, Bendigo and Adelaide.
