Trainer Darren Beadman has revealed that Impending was only a 50 – 50 chance of running last Saturday before winning the Group 1 $1.5m Stradbroke Handicap (1350m) at Doomben.
Stradbroke Handicap winner Impending, above, will be set he Spring Carnival sprints. Photo by Steve Hart.
Impending had to pass a vet’s check when he arrived at the races at Doomben on Saturday after shifting a shoe on Friday and suffering some minor hoof injury.
Beadman praised the effort of his travelling assistant Brett ‘Lofty’ Killion after he treated the problem hoof with ice on Friday night which was able to get Impending to the races to collect Beadman’s first Group 1 win as a trainer.
“We thought this was a great race for him, he’d worked so well over the past two weeks, but after the draw I knew it was going to be tough,” Beadman said.
“There were a couple of other issues as well in the lead up, he trod on his shoe and pulled it off and Brett Killion who looks after him spent most of the past 24 hours icing his foot so we could get him to the start. It’s been a huge team effort.”
“That’s the type of work that goes into winning these type of races. It was 50-50. He had a bit of a pulse in his foot.”
“Anyway we got him there and we trotted him up for the vets at the races just to make sure.”
Godolphin’s Australian managing director Henry Plumptre said that he would discuss the Impending’s Spring Carnival campaign with Beadman and incoming head trainer James Cummings in the near future with the Group 1 sprints high on the agenda.
The major sprints over the 2017 Spring Carnival that will come under notice will be the $10m The Everest (1200m) at Randwick on October 14 and the Group 1 $1m Manikato Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley and the Group 1 $1m Darley Classic (1200m) at Flemington during the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
James Cummings has been appointed the new head trainer for Godolphin for the start of the new racing season which kicks off in August and Beadman will drop back to the assistant trainer’s roll and help Cummings ease into his new position.
Beadman rode well over forty Group 1 winners throughout his illustrious career as a jockey and was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall Of Fame in 2007 for his achievements in the saddle.
The champion jockey’s time in the saddle was cut short after he suffered a career ending injury in a fall at Sha Tin in 2012 when riding for leading Hong Kong trainer John Moore.
Beadman then took up a position as assistant trainer with John O’Shea with Godolphin’s Australian Racing stables and then ended up as interim head trainer when O’Shea retired from the position in May.
