El Luchador’s flat future in the balance

A hat-trick of wins on the flat may not be enough to stave off a jumping role for El Luchador this winter.

The six-year-old will go into the Woods Contracting Taumarunui Gold Cup (2200m) at Rotorua on Saturday off the back of successes at Tauranga and at Trentham.

“He was a bit tired after Wellington, it was a big trip and a heavy track but he has bounced back well,” trainer Mark Brooks said.

“If we were fortunate enough to win again on Saturday he will have gone from carrying 53kg to 60kg in three starts.

“That would make it tough on him, he’s not a big horse. If he went jumping he would be back at the bottom of the handicap.”

El Luchador has already showed promise over fences and was placed in a hurdle trial at Cambridge in May before he opened his successful flat campaign.

“He went over the hurdles to get him fitter and now he’s gone up the handicap on the flat pretty quickly we might have to look at it again,” Brooks said.

While a hurdle campaign may be looming, El Luchador’s progress this winter hasn’t come as any surprise to Brooks.

“A couple of years ago he won over 2400m on the undercard on Counties Cup day and we had thought at that time about running in the Cup instead, he was knocking on the door of that company back then,” he said.

Michael Coleman has ridden El Luchador in his last two starts and he will continue his association with the El Hermano gelding on Saturday.