Hellbent will return to the races in the 2015 Inglis Sprint at Royal Randwick on Saturday and trainer Kurt Goldman is confident that the talented colt is ready to fire in the $250,000 event.
Hellbent finished eighth behind Japonisme (pictured) in the 2015 Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington on Victoria Derby Day. Photo by: Steve Hart
Hellbent has not been seen at the races since he was caught in the worst part of the track when eighth in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on October 31 and Goldman took the opportunity to give the son of I Am Invincible a freshen-up ahead of a race that has always been considered his major target this preparation.
Goldman told Racing Ahead that Hellbent had taken no harm from his trip to Melbourne and he believes that the three-year-old will be a close to his peak fitness for the Inglis Sprint.
“He probably doesn’t need to improve a great deal,” Goldman said.
“He came through that trip to Melbourne in terrific order, the whole time he was there it didn’t faze him one bit and he never left an ounce of feed.
“He coped with the trip down and the atmosphere of the big crowd and he just took it all in his stride.
“He only had two weeks here on the property out in the paddock just to get over that, which helped him maintain that residual fitness that he had.
“We didn’t have to do a lot with him to get him up for this weekend.”
Hellbent made his racing debut in the McGrath Estate Agents Maiden (1100m) at Canterbury on June 24 and he started his spring campaign with another first-up win in the Ranvet Handicap (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens on September 30.
Goldman is confident that Hellbent is always at his best towards the start of his racing preparations and he is confident that he is the horse to beat in the Inglis Sprint.
“His two first-up runs previous have been terrific,” Goldman said.
“He won on debut at Canterbury, which isn’t his ideal surface to be running on and it was class that got him through there.
“Then he spelled and he won first-up at Rosehill, when he controlled the speed, kicked away and won by four and a half lengths.
“I think he has proven that he is a little bit better fresh and he has maintain a lot of that fitness from that last campaign.”
Hellbent will likely head back to the spelling paddock following the Inglis Sprint before he potentially heads to Brisbane for a 2016 Winter Racing Carnival campaign.
