Robert Heathcote has fired a warning to people tipping his horse Work The Room in tomorrow’s Listed Tattersall’s Mile at Eagle Farm.

Although a well backed runner, Heathcote believes the five year old is still not quite at his best and he’ll be a better chance in the week’s to come.

He says that the 1600m is a little bit too short and it won’t be until the 2000m when he really starts to come into his own.

It’s been a slow return to form for the former Victorian horse, Heathcote’s plans continually hampered by minor setbacks.

While his injuries haven’t been major, they’ve been enough to cause constant headaches and have prevented him from showing his best.

Making things tougher for him tomorrow is that fact he runs into a genuine black type field with a number of horses still racing in top form.

It’s something Heathcote has acknowledged and after starting favourite in his last four runs he feels he doesn’t deserve that title again.
“There’s a lot of punters out there that wish he’d stayed in Melbourne, I guess,” Heathcote said.

“He’s had his fair share of problems in the past and he’s the type of horse that needs genuine speed on. He’ll be most effective over 2000m but with the issues he’s had particularly with his feet we’ve been taking it real steady until we get him to 2000m.

“So it’s a big ask in this Listed race tomorrow. It’s a good quality race.”

Work The Room was originally trained by Colin Little down in Victoria before being transferred to Heathcote in the first half of this year.

A half brother to champion Zipping, Work the Room won his first two starts and has been consistent ever since.

In fact from 12 starts he’s won three, run second in three and finished third a further two times.

Since transferring to Heathcote though Brisbane hasn’t been the kindest of environments.

He ran third first up over 1350m before battling for 10th over a 1615m trip.

Things looked to be getting back on track when he was second over 1400m at Eagle Farm but a last start fifth over 1500m again left punters scratching their heads.

Part of the reason little offloaded the horse was due to his ongoing physical issues so there’s plenty of pressure on the Brisbane Trainers Premiership champion in waiting to fix them up.

As always he’ll be a strong player on the Brisbane metro card tomorrow with plenty of good horses in action.

Solhenitsyn is one to look out for as well as Simmering which was touted as a classy staying prospect earlier in the week.

Both horses are favourites for their respected events and are Heathcote’s best hopes on the day.

Not far behind though are Sam’s Town in the opening event and Tomboy in the last who is looking for four wins on the trot.

Heathcote needs just two winners to go past 60 points in the Trainer’s Premiership, he’s already a full 25 wins ahead of John Thompson and Liam Birchley who are together on 32.

It’s not a case of simply having flooded the races either, as well as having the highest number of winners Heathcote is also towards the top when it comes to overall strike rates.