By David Nagel
Pakenham trainer Gareth Andrews may have a progressive stayer on his hands after high-priced yearling Montenegro broke his maiden status on his home track on Thursday night.
Bred for speed – out of I Am Invincible/Twilight Royale – Montenegro showed all the signs of an up-and-coming distance horse as he proved too strong in the $35,000 Maiden Plate (1600m).
The three-year-old gelding cost a pretty penny as a yearling, but failed to fire under the training of Sydney master-trainer Chris Waller…transferring to the Andrews yard earlier this year.
Montenegro is now on the board, racing away from $1.75 favourite Tatsuro to win his first race at start number six.
“He was a very expensive yearling; he was a $1.4million yearling and he’s probably only bred to go 1100 metres,” Andrews explained post-race.
“Graeme and Lois (Mahomed) only bought him four or five months ago I guess, still for $70,000 I think…so he’s still got a bit to do to repay us.
“But I don’t think he’ll make back the 1.4 million,” Andrews said with a smile.
Under Waller’s care, Montenegro began his career over the sprint journey of 1100 metres, and progressed out to 1400 metres in his last start for the stable.
Montenegro has now had three starts for Andrews, over 1200, 1400 and now 1600 metres…and maybe looking for further ground.
“From the moment he arrived he just looked like a stayer, even though he’s bred to only go five or six furlongs, from the moment we got him we thought this bloke is going to stay,” Andrews said.
“Once we got him galloping, we hoped he could stay, because he’s not super quick.
“But as it’s turned out it looks like he is going to run even further I think, so hopefully he’s got some upside for the future.”
Andrews praised the ride of Sheridan Clarke, who gave Montenegro every possible opportunity to break his maiden status.
“She rode him beautifully, she got in behind them and gave him a lovely run, he got carted up into it and she presented him nice and early and gave him plenty of time to wind up,” he said.
“It’s worked out really well, and he had the advantage tonight because he’s been working on this Poly for the last couple of weeks too, and he seems to really like it.
“And I’m glad he liked it because there’s plenty of racing for him here.”
The Pakenham Racing Club recently upgraded its synthetic track, and Andrews believes the club is on a winner.
“So far, I haven’t had one (horse) that hasn’t liked it,” he said.
“I’m interested to see if it gets a bit of kickback later on with the slightly bigger fields, but I think we’ve all been quite happy with the new surface.”
