Caulfield specialist Black Heart Bart claimed his fifth Group 1 win with a nose victory in the $500,000 italktravel Futurity Stakes (1400m) on his favourite track today.

Black Heart Bart, above blue and yellow colours, scores a last stride win in the Futurity Stakes. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

Black Heart Bart ($1.90 favourite) made it four wins from four start over the Caulfield 1400m course and he had to dig deep to claim his stablemate Tosen Stardom ($17) in the last stride.

The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained Ecuador ($10) pinged the gates and set the pace and was also strong to the line to hold on for third while the only three year old in the field Attention ($41) battled on to finish fourth after sitting at Ecuador’s girth for most of the trip.

Black Heart Bart has made it a perfect score for the 2017 Melbourne Autumn Carnival after winning the Group 1 $500,000 Ladbrokes C.F. Orr Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on February 11, his only two runs this campaign.

Trainer Darren Weir will now freshen up the six year and head to Adelaide later in the Autumn to try to win his second Group 1 $1m The Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville on May 20.

“There was some thought of the Goodwood because it has obviously has gone to a million dollars now. It is a quality handicap so I think 59kg or 59.5kg is the most he can get so maybe freshen for that or we can go to Sydney,” Weir said.

“The plan this preparation was to target these two races, the Orr and the Futurity   and he won them both.”

“A great horse to have.”

Winning jockey Brad Rawiller settled Black Heart Bart midfield and brought the big bay to the outside in the straight to wind up and he was able to claim his stablemate in the last couple of strides.