The Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman stable added further firepower to their assault on the spring riches available both here and across the Tasman when one of their promising three-year-olds from last season made a scintillating reappearance at Hastings on Saturday.
Four-year-old gelding Get That Jive was rated one of the leading contenders for classic honours during his three-year-old campaign but some niggling issues and bad luck combined to thwart those aspirations.
“He has really matured over his break and has come back in good order for this campaign,” noted an understated Forsman.
“He didn’t have a lot go right for him as a three-year-old and although he went some top races against the best of his age, he didn’t manage to win a race. His only unplaced run was in the New Zealand Derby, where he didn’t get the trip, so we put him aside after that and gave him a good, long break.”Forsman admitted he wasn’t sure what to expect on Saturday despite the gelding producing a sound performance at the Cambridge trials just over a week ago.
“We thought he was forward enough to be prominent but it was a very handy field to strike for your first run of the season,” he said.“As it panned out the race was run to suit as they went very hard up front and he got a nice run into it on the corner and put them away well.”
Future plans for the gelding are currently undecided but Forsman did expect to see the gelding make his way to Australia at some stage.“We haven’t thought past this first run so I can’t say where he will go next,” he admitted.
“There are plenty of options for him and we do think that he is best suited to a mile or further. I would also guess that his connections would like to see him in Australia if possible so once we see how he comes through this first run Murray will sit down and work out where he will be best placed over the coming months.”
