Stable favourite Justacanta has returned to the care of his New Zealand trainers Shaun and Emma Clotworthy after a fruitful time in Australia over the last 18 months.
In the care of Patrick Payne, Justacanta won the Group 2 Linlithgow Stakes (1200m) and Listed Paris Lane Stakes (1410m) and placed in the Group 3 Moonga Stakes (1400m) and Group 3 Chatham Stakes (1400m).
He also had two starts for Scott Brunton in Tasmania, placing in the Listed Thomas Lyons Stakes (1400m).
“He was great in Australia. He won a Group Two in the spring carnival (last year) and took some good prizemoney,” Shaun Clotworthy said.
The nine-year-old gelding pleased his trainers in his first public hit-out since his return home when finishing midfield in his 1000m trial at Avondale on Tuesday.
“He's only 60-70 percent fit, so I was happy with him. He was just having a day out,” Clotworthy said.
“It is great to have him back. He has pleased me over the last couple of weeks at home.
“He will head to another jumpout at Counties next Monday and then we will see where we are at.
“He is nominated for the Railway (Group 1, 1200m) and Telegraph (Group 1, 1200m), they will be his main aims this summer, so we will just see how he comes up in the next few weeks. He will probably go fresh into the Railway.
“He is very genuine, so if he comes back to anything like his old ability, we are hoping he will be quite competitive in a race like the Telegraph.”
The current ownership group purchased the handy galloper for just $6,000 as a tried horse off gavelhouse.com, with the Little Avondale-bred son of Per Incanto winning three starts for Hamilton trainer David Greene. He was a Group Three performer for the Clotworthys before transferring across the Tasman.
Clotworthy was also pleased with the trial of Group Two performer Mr Jay Eight in his 1000m heat.
“He drew wide on Saturday so we just gave him a nice, quiet trial and he will head to Te Rapa on the 10th for a 75 1200m,” he said.
“We will just see what happens after that. He will probably just have another couple of runs before he has a break again.”
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