Victoria’s leading trainer Darren Weir has declared Black Heart Bart in great shape as he prepares to defend his title in Saturday’s Group 1 $1m Darley Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville.
Black Heart Bart, above, is in great shape to defend his title in The Goodwood at Morphettville. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
Black Heart Bart will jump from the same barrier as he did last year when he recorded the first of his five Group 1 wins and Weir said that he has had a perfect preparation leading into this year’s glamour sprint of Adelaide’s Festival Of Racing.
“He is in great shape,” Weir told racing.com.
“He has had quite a lot of work in the last two to three weeks. Had a very strong gallop on Tuesday morning.”
“Brad Rawiller went down and rode him and he worked with a stablemate of ours and worked very well so he is in the right shape going there Saturday and drawn the same barrier as what he did last year.”
“So hopefully we can get the same result.”
Rawiller takes the ride again and was on board Black Heart Bart for last year’s Goodwood win and also combined with the big bay to claim another four Group 1 wins over the next twelve months.
Following his Goodwood win, Black Heart Bart went on to win the Group 1 $500,000 Memsie Stakes (1400m) and the Group 1 $500,000 Underwood Stakes (1800m) both at Caulfield during the 2016 Melbourne Spring Carnival.
The Blackfriars six year old then continued his Group 1 winning form during the 2017 Melbourne Autumn Carnival with wins in the $500,000 Ladbrokes C.F. Orr Stakes (1400m) and in the Group 1 $500,000 italktravel Futurity Stakes (1400m), both at Caulfield again.
Weir said that Black Heart Bart was a dream to train and that any trainer would love to have him in their stable.
“Any trainer would love to have him in their stable,” Weir said.
“He is very bomb proof, he is easy to train. He eats well, he does his work and he stays sound so they are the three really important things that you need and more importantly he is a good horse on race day.”
Black Heart Bart has held his spot at the top of the Ladbrokes.com.au market order for The Goodwood at $3.50 ahead of the Lindsay Park trained Vega Magic at $6.50, Secret Agenda at $7.50 and Malaguerra at $8.
