Sentimental Dream, described by trainer Bill Ryan as a reformed headcase, won his second successive race at Mowbray on Wednesday night.
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After being given a box-seat run by jockey Brendon McCoull, Sentimental Dream scooted clear in the home straight to win the Benchmark 62 Handicap by almost two lengths.
It was his fifth run after an extended layoff.
Asked why the gelding had spent so long on the sidelines, Ryan was blunt: “He was psycho – he was not in a happy place,’ the trainer said.
“So we threw him in the paddock and hoped he’d come right.”
After he’d been out for 18 months, part-owner Ron Riley suggested to Ryan it might be time to try the horse again.
“He was six years old and we were running out of time,” Riley said.
Ryan said that Sentimental Dream came back “a totally different horse.”
“At his first-up run he got caught on the fence and the jockey said he didn’t want to be there but then I put the shades on him and it turned him around,” the trainer said.
Connections are hoping that, despite his advancing years, Sentimental Dream may now fulfill the promise he showed as a young horse when he won three of his first seven starts.
Ryan and McCoull teamed up again to complete a double with Osborne in the Benchmark 58 Handicap.
And, like his stablemate, Ryan said Osborne also had his mental issues.
The eight-year-old was having only his third run after a two-year break.
TRAINER Scott Brunton was quick to dismiss a suggestion that former NSW gelding Ivoryman was unlucky when a beaten favourite at his Tasmanian debut.
“There was nothing unlucky about it – I made a terrible mistake and presented him a little bit underdone,” Brunton said after Ivoryman made amends with a narrow win in the Kevin Sharkie Maiden.
“The money was on (first-up) so that falls on me.
“But it was a terrific effort tonight, even though he pulled up when he hit the front.
“He might be a little bit of a squib or we might just need more time to work him out.
“The best thing was that he showed a good turn of foot.”
Brunton said that two of Ivoryman’s owners, Leigh Winwood and Mick Burnett, had found the Pins gelding at an auction.
“He’s got a few issues but he can go to the paddock now and we’ll try to win another race with him after winter,” the trainer said.
Ivoryman was ridden by Craig Newitt who made it a double in the following race on Barry Campbell-trained filly Carmina.
The jockey looked set to make it a treble on $1.40 favourite Breathtaking in the Class 1 Handicap but she was run down by Lads Curfew ridden by Jason Maskiell.