STAR Tasmanian galloper Geegees Blackflash returned to winning form in Launceston on Wednesday night with a courageous victory over quality mare Rebel Bride in the inaugural Conquering weight-for-age over 1400 metres.
With his regular jockey Peter Mertens aboard, Geegees Blackflash settled midfield inside of Dream Flyer and the duo were in unison when they set out after tearaway leader Rebel Bride (Stephen Maskiell) 500 metres from home.
When Mertens got Geegees Blackflash into clear racing room about 200 metres from the line he knuckled down to his task and dug deep to run down the star mare close to home with Dream Flyer not far away in third spot.
It was a popular win with the crowd cheering loudly as Mertens brought last season’s Tasmanian Horse of the Year back to the unsaddling enclosure.
It was an elated trainer John Luttrell who explained the horse had to contend with a few issues leading up to his first start this season in which he finished down the track in the Newmarket Handicap two weeks earlier.
“In hindsight I probably should not have run him in theNewmarketbecause he had missed a couple of important gallops and we had to treat him to remove boils that had surfaced on his shoulder and rump about 10 days prior to theNewmarket,” Luttrell said.
“We ran him and it did no harm but tonight he was feeling much better in himself and the way he gunned down that super mare (Rebel Bride) was proof that we have got him right back on track.”
“He is still only at about 85% right but I would expect this run will have him ready to tackle the Kevin Sharkie (weight-fir-age) over 1600 metres in Hobart in just under a fortnight,” he said.
The Kevin Sharkie (WFA) is the feature race on the card at the next Hobart meeting on December 16.
Geegees Blackflash won the Sharkie last year that was one of five wins from six starts. He won the AAMI Hobart Cup before suffering his only defeat and that was when second to Prevailing in the AAMI Launceston Cup.