Connections hoping patience is a virtue with Baraqiel

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Trainer Troy Corstens and syndicator Nathan Bennett are confident their patience with injury-plagued six-year-old Baraqiel (Snitzel) can pay off with him becoming the second top-tier winner for his dam in Saturday’s mouth-watering Champions Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m) at Flemington.

The half-brother to ATC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Autumn Angel (The Autumn Sun), bred by Arrowfield and Katsumi Yoshida out of four-time stakes winner Angel Of Mercy (Hussonet), lines up for the toughest test of his brief career at around the $9 mark in a field packed with quality.

Although ‘meteoric’ applies to Baraqiel’s career, the gelding didn’t race until he was five due to a string of injuries more frequent than serious, and has still only had eight starts. Six of those have been wins during this, his lengthy first campaign, all with Ben Allen in the saddle.

Starting with a four-length romp in a Sale maiden (1105m) in May, he won his first four capped by a Caulfield Benchmark 84 (1200m) in June.

Two thirds up the Flemington straight in July and September, either side of a short break, have been followed by two Moonee Valley 1200-metre victories, again split by a mini respite at Corstens’ farm near Benalla.

The second of those Valley wins was by 2.8 lengths in the McEwen Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) on October 26. Ratings assessor Dan O’Sullivan gave it a 103.7, compared with the 103.5 he gave to one of his Champions Sprint rivals, Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai) for winning The Everest (Gr 1, 1200m).

Patience from connections – over career-delaying injuries stretching from a barrier trial mishap at three through to bone chip surgery at five – has paid off royally. But those in his corner are under no illusions about the size of his task on Saturday.

In a 12-runner field for the $3 million Champions Sprint dripping with quality, Bella Nipotina held favouritism on Friday at around $4.40, just ahead of fellow Everest runners Giga Kick (Scissor Kick) and Sunshine In Paris (Invader).

Bjorn Baker’s Overpass (Vancouver) was around $5.50 to land a fourth successive win – and his second up the Flemington straight. For good measure the Mark Walker-trained Fortuna-owned filly Bellatrix Star (Star Witness) backs up at $13 after her brave Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) second, thrown in under 51.5 kilograms under the weight-for-age conditions.

“I walked into his box this morning,” Corstens, who trains in partnership with his father Leon and Will Clarken, said of Baraqiel, “and I whispered into his ear, ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore, Baz.’

“We’re in the big time now, so it’s going to be interesting to see where he sits. It’s the best field he’s ever taken on.

“But I do think he’s up to it. He’s an extremely competitive horse, and his last win was his best so far. There’s a little question mark over the Flemington straight still, but when there’s this much prize–money on offer and he’s fit and well, you’ve got to have a crack.”

At first blush, Baraqiel and Autumn Angel might be considered breeding anomalies – a sprinter and an Oaks winner out of the same mare in Angel Of Mercy, who won up to 1615m and had a top–level second in Eagle Farm’s Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m).

Yet it says much for the merits of their respective Arrowfield sires – Snitzel and The Autumn Sun – that one mare can produce two such disparate stakes winners.

“We probably thought he was more of a miler when we bought him,” said Bennett, “but he’s just shown how electric he is as a sprinter.

“He’s still very lightly raced, so he might get out to a mile at some stage, but for now he’ll stay a sprinter. Plus, he’s had that much time out, he should be able to race on for a while, now that he’s healthy and sound.”

Those qualities were very much in the unknown basket for the first few years of Baraqiel’s life. He was bought at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $150,000 by Bennett, Anthony Freedman and Blue Sky Bloodstock, later going to Team Corstens when Bennett and Freedman parted ways.

“He was ready to run as a three-year-old but got cast in his box and pierced a hind tendon, in a freak injury,” Bennett said. “He needed 12 months of rehab for that.

“Then he came back and was trialling well. Damien Oliver told me he was a pretty nice horse, and I had a couple of other jockeys sending me texts with jet flames on them. But then he went down on both knees one day and got bone bruising, and we had to wait another six months.”

Another bruising incident upon his return spelled another lengthy break, and on the comeback trail from that it was discovered Baraqiel had a bone chip around a suspensory ligament. Surgery and rehab followed that, only for another chip to be found around another suspensory.

While Bennett may have worried about exhausting the patience of the gelding’s 80 or so owners, such was Corstens’ enduring faith he offered to rehab Baraqiel at his own farm for free. Eventually, more than four years after his purchase, the gelding made his debut at Sale – in memorable style.

“It was quite an emotional victory that one,” Bennett said. “It was a good feeling to get that done after everything that had happened.”

Six months later, Baraqiel is seeking to continue a stellar year for Bennett Racing – capped by the syndicator’s first two top-tier victories through Southport Tycoon’s (Written Tycoon) Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).

A Group 1 to Baraqiel on Saturday would also compensate for the Ciaron Maher-trained Southport Tycoon’s ninth in last Saturday’s Golden Eagle (1500m), when his jockey Craig Williams had to recover after losing his left iron in a bump at the start.

Bennett and Corstens are comfortable with Baraqiel up the Flemington straight despite his only two defeats coming there: third placings in a 1200-metre Benchmark 84 and an 1100-metre Benchmark 78. Both were on Soft 7s Bennett feels played more like Heavy 8s, while in the second event Baraqiel had a clear excuse.

“He got trampled from behind,” Bennett said. “He looked like he was about to win, then he got a fair old cut on his hind leg.

“Both those straight runs were full of merit, but Ben Allen said to put a line through both of them, and that he’s totally different horse since having a little break and coming back to win the McEwen.

“This is harder, but if we can find that extra bit he’s got under the bonnet, we should be right in the race. Hopefully we can sit on the back of Overpass, who should take us a long way into the race, and I’m sure we’ll be in the finish.”

Baker was on Friday oozing confidence regarding Overpass who will head into the race after three successive, well-spaced wins, the latest in Randwick’s Sydney Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m), when he beat Bella Nipotina’s time in The Everest one race later by 0.03 seconds. Overpass will jump from the widest gate of 13 for Josh Parr.

“He’s in good order. He’s second-up and I still think he’s probably better fresh, but he’s off a three-week break and has only had a couple of gallops between runs,” Baker said of Overpass, who’s had two Flemington straight runs for a fast-finishing sixth in the 2021 Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and a 0.8-length victory in the three-year-old Inglis Sprint (1200m) in 2022.

“He was unlucky in the Coolmore but then came back and won the Inglis Sprint, so we’re not worried about it. Josh actually thinks he could be a better horse straight.”

Trainer Clayton Douglas believes Giga Kick is back to his true self after rehabilitation from a torn muscle between a hamstring and a hip.

The winner of his first five starts capped by the 2022 Everest, Giga Kick has had three Randwick outings since resuming from a year’s break: a moderate first-up fifth in September’s Concorde Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m); a fourth in the Premiere Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m); and an 0.2 length second in The Everest as eighth pick in the market at $14, which suggested he may have regained his three-year-old touch.

“I think he is back to the old Giga Kick now,” Douglas said.

“He was so brilliant as a three-year-old. We didn’t have a blemish on our record for a while, but then things haven’t gone our way so much.

“We probably had the horse right in June. But fitness-wise he had to cop a bit more pressure. We did contemplate getting him ready for the John Monash Stakes in July, but decided to pull stumps and get him ready for the spring.

“He carried plenty of condition, and it took us a while to get him where he needed to be, but he’s improved with every outing and I’d say we should get the right run tomorrow and he’ll prove pretty hard to beat.

“In The Everest, he began well but didn’t get into stride very quickly, and was on the back foot after 50 yards, but he mustered up well.

“He’s performed well up the straight. I’d suggest he’ll be off the speed but he can race a little bit closer up the straight from what we know of him. Hopefully he won’t be giving them too big a start. It’s a pretty stellar field.”

Following last Saturday’s win in the Russell Balding Stakes (1300m), Bella Nipotina will be out to shake her Flemington hoodoo – she has just a second and three thirds from ten starts there – and atone for last year’s failure when attempting an identical back-up.

Twelve months ago, after taking the race then known as the Winners Stakes (1300m), Bella Nipotina finished a 2.1-length fifth in this race behind Imperatriz (I Am Invincible).