Triple Group One winner Humidor (NZ) will headline a trio of Group One winners trainer Lindsey Smith intends racing in Perth this winter after revising plans to campaign in Queensland.
The COVID-19 outbreak has significantly reduced Queensland’s winter carnival and with a doubt remaining on any interstate participation, Smith said Western Australia's winter weight-for-age trio of stakes races was now the plan for Humidor, Trap For Fools and the retiring veteran Black Heart Bart.
"Perth might have the best racing in Australia over winter," Smith said.
"I had Black Heart Bart going for those weight-for-age races and he came back to Western Australia especially for these races and these other horses have now joined him, so I hope they win one each."
The weight-for-age Listed race trio starts with the Belmont Stakes (1400m) on May 30 followed by the Hyperion Stakes (1600m) on June 13 and the Strickland Stakes (2000m) on June 27.
Smith said that Humidor, who ran second earlier this month in a soft trial at Bunbury in his first official appearance in Western Australia, was to be readied for another spring carnival in Melbourne via Brisbane this winter.
"He was going to go to Queensland but that looks like it’s not going to happen, so he’ll have to stay in Perth," he said of the seven-year-old.
"There’s those weight-for-age races that he can go in and see if we can get him back to being interested in being a racehorse and if he does he’ll have a bit of a rest and come back to Melbourne for the spring.
"If he doesn’t come back up, they’ll (owners) have a decision to make but the signs are pretty positive. He’s quite relaxed out on the farm here and he’s working pretty kindly and his trial was a pass mark.
"It was only easy, but it was quite good and he pulled up well coming out of it.”
Humidor began his career in New Zealand in the care of Otaki trainers Johno Benner and Hollie Wynyard, for whom he was a Group Three winner and Group One placed, before his partial sale to Australia.
The winner of the Gr.1 Australian Cup (2000m), Gr.1 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) and Gr.1 Memsie Stakes (1400m), Humidor also placed twice in the Gr.1 Cox Plate (2040m) behind champion mare Winx, injuring a suspensory ligament in the 2018 edition which kept him off the scene for nine months.
Smith said he has been happy with the way Humidor has recovered from the injury.
"He stretches it (damaged suspensory ligament) quite a lot in the heavy sand here and it’s quite supple,” Smith said.
"Sometimes when horses hurt their legs, they protect themselves and run like they have governors on them but hopefully he gets his mojo back.’’ – NZ Racing Desk
