“We just threw him in a paddock up the Hunter with a bunch of horses and just let him be a horse, and he’s come back and he seems like he’s the old Shaggy. He’s doing a lot of things like he was. He’s very playful.”
In his only trial back, Shaggy was a length second to Kris Lees-trained Hawker Hall, which was a $3.10 TAB favourite for Saturday’s race after winning a benchmark 88 handicap last start at Rosehill.
Trainer Allan Kehoe (left).Credit: Getty Images
Kehoe was encouraged by the 845m trial at Wyong and a winning jump-out there two weeks earlier. He opted to scratch out of Saturday’s easier assignment, the Midway, after drawing gate one in the ninth. Reece Jones has the ride.
“I didn’t know it was going to be in the trial,” he said of Hawker Hall.
“Before that I thought he would put four or five on them in the trial, he’d been going that good. And you take Kris’s out of it, he probably wins by four or five.
“Kris’s is a lot fitter and it’s probably got more upside, but we’ll probably take more out of the trial.
“I accepted in both, but I was really hoping to draw a good gate in this one. I’m not scared of them, he’s got to take them on if he’s as good as we thought he was, but he’s showing good signs in his track work and he’s running faster times than he did earlier, so he’s just got to take it to the track now.
“He’s strengthened to buggery. He’s only a little fella in height, but he’s definitely chunked up again. He’s carrying nearly an extra 30 kilos.
“I’d love to see him win, but if he’s top three, there’s a good race in a fortnight against his own age. A three-year-old benchmark 78 over 1100, which will be ideal.”
Shaggy’s Randwick win was Kehoe’s biggest thrill in racing and he hopes his cult sprinter can take him there again.
“If he can win a couple of these smaller races, he might get back to where he was when he was firing,” said Kehoe, who left school at 13 to work with horses and now has 196 career wins.
“We aren’t aiming at anything stupid yet. He’d have to be real competitive in these two runs to think about the better races.
“It’s so funny, I’ve never had a horse like him. Wherever I go, I’ve got people coming up saying, ‘Where’s Shaggy?’ They all love him.
“I go to pubs and people still buy me beers. I said to some of my workers, ‘it’s a wonder they don’t tip them over my head the way he went last prep’.
“But other than his last run, his three before that were pretty hot races and he got beat three and two lengths, and he had a lot of bad luck. The last one, he was out on his feet, but before that he wasn’t getting beat far in good company.
“We’ve added a tongue tie and taken the blinkers off, and he’s happy as Larry.”
