Five times Group 1 winner Black Heart Bart will be sent for break and will be out of contention for the Group 1 $1.5m Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm on June 10.

Black Heart Bart, above, will be spelled before being prepared for the Spring Carnival. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

Black Heart Bart has won four Group 1 races since being beaten by a head when second to Under The Louvre in the 2016 Stradbroke Handicap but trainer Darren Weir said that the six year old would not be contesting this year’s version and will be rested before being prepared for a Spring Carnival campaign,

Weir said that Black Heart Bart has pulled up well after finishing fifth in the Group 1 $700,000 Darley Kingsford-Smith Cup (1300m) last Saturday, nine lengths behind winner Clearly Innocent on the shifty heavy 8 rated Eagle Farm track.

“He is such a good horse but he got a long way back and it was very testing for him because he just doesn’t like that sort of ground, but he just ran his normal, honest, brave race,” Weir told RSN’s Correct Weight program.

“I was happy with him, he got beaten a margin but there were lots of horses that got beaten a margin on the day.

“Importantly, he’s come out of it really well and he is off to Washpool (Lodge) this morning (Sunday) to have three weeks off and then he’ll get back into it for the spring.”

Black Heart Bart collected his first Group 1 trophy with his win in the 2016 $500,000 Darley Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville and then went on to win four more Group 1 races, all at Caulfield.

During the 2016 Melbourne Spring Carnival Black Heart Bart won the Group 1 $500,000 Memsie Stakes (1400m) and $500,000 Underwood Stakes (1800m) and then during the 2017 Melbourne Autumn Carnival added the $500,000 Ladbrokes C.F. Orr Stakes (1400m) and the $500,000 Futurity Stakes (1400m) to his Group 1 tally.

Black Heart Bart is the winner of sixteen races from forty-one starts and has earned $3,445,580 in prizemoney for his connections.