CARDINAL ART is no stranger to winning races but when he scored an impressive all-the-way victory at Carrick on the Northern region of Tasmania on Friday it may have marked the beginning of a best ever campaign.
With Todd Rattray in the cart, the Chester Bullock-trained six-year-old showed plenty of early speed to rush across the field to lead.
Once in front Rattray rated the gelded son of Modern Art superbly and when the more fancied runners made their charges in the home straight Cardinal Art was up to the task and went on to win convincingly from Baragoola and Santanna Night.
It was a great result for Bullock who was keen to put Rattray aboard given his regard for the talented reinsman who spent a couple of years working for Bullock at his training and breeding complex at Riverside in the North of the state.
“When this horse drew barrier one I was very keen to put Todd on because in my opinion there is no better front-running driver in the state,” Bullock said.
While the trainer was all smiles after the race he also was quick to remind Rattray of a comment he made about the horse five weeks earlier.
“Five weeks ago Todd was at my place and he saw Cardinal Art and asked me when she was due”(thinking that he was a pregnant mare).”
“That’s how fat he was at the tome but I changed his work around since then and it had the desired effect,” Bullock said.
It was the Carrick club’s first of three meetings for the season but heavy rain during the day ended up cutting the meeting short.
While the racetrack was still safe after a couple of deluges it was water running off a side road leading to the track that led to the last three races being abandoned.
Dirty water running off the nearby road flowed onto the track and because it was orange in colour horses were jumping it during their preliminaries prior to race seven.
The meeting was delayed by stewards as attempts were made to rectify the problem but eventually chief steward Adrian Crowther had to abandon the rest of the program.