Goulburn trainer Danny Williams has reluctantly withdrawn boom sprinter War Charm from Rosehill tomorrow, opting to save the horse for later in the autumn.
Photo by Racing and Sports
The four-year-old would've been chasing a fifth win in six starts this preparation in the Benchmark 79 Handicap (1400m), but indicated to Williams during the week he was below his best prompting the trainer to scratch him from the race.
“It's disappointing to do what we're doing because he's drawn wonderfully tomorrow,” Williams said.
“It'd give us an indication of where he was at, he was well weighted, he's crying out for 1400. Unfortunately, it's no good running him if he's not right.
“It's just taken him longer than I know that the horse naturally takes in responding to everything. He's just right on the border of not being 100 per cent.
“To me it's telling me that the horse is a bit tired and I want to have something for him during the carnival, have him race March, April maybe into May.
“If I run him on Saturday I'm just going to take everything that I may have at the moment away and I may have to spell him much longer than I want to.”
Williams has been pleasantly surprised with War Charm's progress this preparation after a disappointing two-year-old Queensland campaign last time in.
He broke his maiden in December at Wagga, but it wasn't until he won easily at Goulburn in Class 2 company next start that Williams started thinking the horse had turned it around.
After a second placing at Canberra, he went up to metropolitan grade winning twice, the last of which came at Rosehill three weeks ago.
“He's astonished me that he's gone as well as he has in such a short period,” Williams said.
“We always thought that he had enough ability to win a nice race but then he was very slow putting it together as a two-year-old in Queensland.
“We brought him back to the country and his win at Wagga wasn't sensational. We most probably reassessed out opinion at that stage and to do what he's done at Wagga to now has really been astonishing to say the least.”
Williams said he wasn't targeting a specific race over the autumn, but was keen to let the General Nediym gelding progress through his grades.
