The Cleaner To Join Gelagotis Stable

Connections have confirmed that The Cleaner will continue his racing career under the care of Peter Gelagotis.

The Cleaner is set to join rival Mourinho at the stable of Peter Gelagotis. Photo by: Ultimate Racing Photos

The Cleaner is set to join rival Mourinho at the stable of Peter Gelagotis. Photo by: Ultimate Racing Photos

The Australian racing community was left stunned on Monday afternoon when it was revealed that The Cleaner would be taken off popular trainer Mick Burles and the common sentiment on social media was that no trainer in their right mind would accept The Cleaner.

Manny Gelagotis, the racing manager for his brother Peter, took to Twitter yesterday morning to state that the stable would not take The Cleaner without the consent of their ‘great mate’ Mick Burles, but Gelagotis now claims that he has had discussions with Burles and the Tasmanian trainer had given the stable his blessing.

“The horse wouldn’t come to us unless we were clear in our minds and satisfied that all parties were happy,” Gelagotis told Racing Ahead.

“It is no secret that Mick is not happy and no trainer would be happy to lose their best horse.

“What we have tried to is that we try to reunite these people, so there is a future moving forward and that is how we involve everybody.

“We are the innocent party here really, but you have to be strong in these situations and get the right outcome for everyone involved.

“Mick Burles has been in the forefront of our minds because we have created quite an amazing friendship over quite a short amount of time.

“Mick is obviously a very intriguing character and I have had some privileged conversations with him yesterday and those conversations are not for anyone business.

“We have a full understand of what the situation is and we have a full understanding of the horse.

“I am really excited to be working with Mick and the guys moving forward to look after the horse.

“We would never have taken the horse without the right dialogue and discussion points moving forward.”

Burles claimed that there was clearly something amiss with The Cleaner following his well below par performance in the Listed Conquering Stakes (1400m) at Launceston on December 9 and Gelagotis admits that he is yet to run his eyes over the eight-year-old, but he is hopeful that the Group 1 placegetter will be able to thrive in his brothers Moe-based stable.

“We are hoping that he will be here in the next week,” Gelagotis said.

“He will come into the system.

“We have a good basic understanding of the horse and hopefully we can get him back to his best.

“We will just see what unfolds, but there has been no decision made yet, we haven’t seen the horse or examined the horse yet.

“This is a testament to what we have tried to achieve in the last ten years, but we have built our business to a model that is very successful.”

The Gelagotis stable bounced back from a three month suspension received at the Warrnambool Carnival earlier this year to score their first Group 1 victory with Mourinho in the Underwood Stakes (1800m).

About The Author

Thomas Hackett

Thomas is a passionate and opinionated racing journalist and punter who has been obsessed with horse racing since he backed Saintly to win the 1996 Melbourne Cup. An international racing enthusiast, he has his finger on the pulse of racing news not just from Australia but all around the world.