One of nicest trainers to catch up with in Queensland Racing is Natalie McCall and I had the pleasure of calling her today to congratulate her on a great training performance to have River Lad winning first up on a very heavy Eagle Farm surface Saturday.
He has always had plenty of promise and even won up to 1600m last prep. Many thought the heavy track first up could be too big of a hurdle, but he was superb and fought very hard against God’s Window who already had one run under his belt.
“I was wrapped with him. I was a bit worried with the track and running him first up on it, but he was fit enough so it was good. I thought he could win, but at the 100m I was thinking he may have tired but he wacked away well.” McCall said.
Natalie said the run did take a little bit out of River Lad as expected but she feels he will be 100% for his next run which interestingly will be in 3 ½ weeks away and will be in the Weetwood Handicap at Toowoomba. The horse hasn’t run on that track but has won at home on the cushion at the sunny coast. He looks as though he has come back a treat and it would not surprise in the least to see him feature up there.
Nat also has a couple of other handy horse in the stable including Kelbenjar who ran some very good races last preparation in some good company. He will be nominated for Saturday, but may wait until the following Wednesday. If my stats are correct I believe he ran 1:08:90 winning one day at Doomben. Also in the stable is a young horse named Novaspur who showed promise but just had a couple of runs before a break as Nat said “He was just like a big foal” but believes he will improve a lot this time in work and looks a lot better this time in the stables.
As always it’s great to catch up with Natalie and with a few of these main horses coming back I’m sure we will catch up with her again soon as there are a few more wins just around the corner for this up and coming stable!
