Trots Centre: Kiwi project has speed to burn but much to learn

Never shy of welcoming a challenge into their fold, Mick Gadsden and Denbeigh Wade’s latest high potential/high maintenance project is promising plenty of reward with the risk.

The Interceptor has his third start for the Charlton stable in tonight’s Garrards Horse & Hound Pace, which kicks off the Bendigo program at 5.50pm on Trots Vision at thetrots.com.au.

It will be the third Australian start for the former Kiwi, who overraced in his Charlton debut before fading to finish fifth, and then last start at Bendigo pulled hard in the score-up and strugged to keep pace mid-race, before leaving scorch marks on the Lords Raceway final straight with a last to second romp.

“He didn’t seem to want to work and at the 400 I started walking back to the stalls and thought he’d done it again and pulled his way out of it,” trainer Gadsden said.

“Then I heard (race caller) Lachie (McIntosh) get excited up the straight and I thought someone must be making ground. I turned around and he was flying.”

From a distant last at the 400, The Interceptor hit the line just 1.8 metres shy of winner Our Doreen Days.

“(Driver) Denbeigh came off the track and said she felt like she’d been hit by a bus, because he’s such a handful, but that the adrenaline in the last 200 metres was unreal,” Gadsden said. “The replay has been played a few times. I clocked it at 26.2 roughly and he was four and five-wide on the track."

WATCH THE INTERCEPTOR COME STORMING HOME:

It was a staggering change of pace and, while Gadsden hadn’t anticipated it mid-race, he wasn’t completely surprised.

The Mach Three four-year-old was snapped up from New Zealand by Stephen Blacker, Gadsden and Andrew and Emma Lydeamore with a promising pedigree.

“His form in New Zealand was quite good behind Tinder Surprise, who Kerryn now has and has been unbeaten for her,” Gadsden said.

“He had always done a fair bit wrong in his races – overraced and a few things like that. But he was up for sale and Stevie Blacker got him at a good price and decided to gamble on him because of his sheer ability.”

Covid-19 put the slows on his import, but he’s now had two months with Gadsden and Wade, much of which has been spent taming the beast.

“Denbeigh really shows a lot of patience and poise with these fiery horses in the stable,” Gadsden said.

“(The Interceptor) has always had a few quirks and overraced at home. I thought we had it sorted before Charlton, but the occasion got the better of him and it was back to the drawing board.

“He has mellowed a lot since he’s been here. It’s starting to come, but it might take 12 or 18 months, or might never come.”

Gear changes, including putting on pacifiers for the first time at Bendigo tonight, will be trialed, and the pair are happy for him to maintain his out-of-the-draw status “until he learns to settle and be a racehorse”.

“He’ll be driven much the same again. He will settle near last and come with one run. If he doesn’t lose that ground in the run and shows that speed again he will take some holding out.

“He has the speed to round them up in lower classes, but he’s like having a Ferrari that you have to drive with a rudder.”

Another who has teased the camp is The Summer Cat, who will contest tonight’s Aldebaran Park Trotters Handicap at 6.59pm.

Gadsden said the talented Angus Hall trotter had discovered every possible way to lose, including throwing it away last start at Lords Raceway.

“He had them shot to bits at Bendigo and looked like he had it won but jumped off stride three-quarters of the way up the straight,” he said.

“On his work at home he should be right up there and is a progressive type. He just hasn’t quite worked out his ring craft.”

Wade and Gadsden will also start Sporting Model in the Alabar Bloodstock 3YO Pace, with the Art Major filly something of an outsider in the field but well placed to take advantage of her favorable gate two draw over the middle distance.

“She’s been hitting the line well and looks like she was looking for the extra trip,” Gadsden said.

“It is a pretty handy field, but she is getting better with every run. The hope will be to get to the pegs and assess from there, probably take cover and look after her a bit.”

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