HARNESS trainer Heath Szczypka proved beyond doubt that he has more patience than most after his six-year-old gelding Bertils Rocket scored an impressive win in a C1-C2 2090 metres at Tattersall’s Park in Hobart on Sunday night.
Bertils Rocket arrived at Szczypka’s stables in late 2009 as a tried three-year-old that had won two races on the Gold Coast in Queensland the previous season.
When Bertils Rocket went to the trials Szczypka was delighted that he was able to run a close second to former star mare Shez Ryleymak in a trial at Carrick.
He won two races and notched a second and earned a fourth-placed cheque twice from his first seven starts but then the wheels started to fall off.
Bertils Rocket became injury prone and developed a spate of internal ailments including stomach ulcers that kept his trainer busy with working out ways to combat the problems.
“He took a lot of working out. I usually take no more than two months to work out any horse that comes into the stable but this bloke has took me about two years,” Szczypka said.
“Things just kept going wrong with the horse with ulcers and other internal problems causing the horse and me heaps of dramas.”
“I tried so many different training methods – some conventional and some way outside the square.”
After his win in June 2010 at Tattersall’s Park, Bertils Rocket didn’t win another race until he saluted at New Norfolk on Australia Day this year and he scored again at the same venue in early April after which his form has been very consistent.
On Sunday night he was well driven by gun young reinsman Dylan Ford who had the gelding settled in the one-out line but back in the field.
With a solid pace set by the favourite Scruffy Jake, Ford was content to sit back and wait for the three-wide train to emerge in the back straight the last time.
Bertils Rocket was eased four-wide nearing the home turn and when Ford called on him for the supreme effort in the home straight the gelding unleashed a powerful sprint and hit the line well clear of Cesta La Vie with Big Rusty a closing third.
The gelding is owned by Swedish Queensland businessman Bertil Olsson.
Listen to what trainer Heath Szczypka had to say about Bertils Rocket’s latest win – click here.