Patience has been rewarded for the connections of the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-trained Forgot You (NZ) (Savabeel).
The five-year-old entire by Savabeel came with a well-timed run under Blake Shinn to score a comfortable victory in the Listed Furphy Plate (1800m) at Flemington on Tuesday, returning to the winner’s circle for the first time since landing the Gr.2 Moonee Valley Vase (2040m) just over two years ago.
Off the scene for the best part of 18 months with a tendon injury, Forgot You had been building to a win, with an eye-catching performance for third in the Gr.3 JRA Cup (2040m) at his most recent outing.
A strong tempo was set by eventual third-placegetter Sibaaq (Dark Angel), with Forgot You and runner-up Warning (Declaration of War) settling near the rear of the field and relishing the hot speed.
“When he broke down, he broke down badly,” Trent Busuttin said. “Everyone has done a fantastic job with him and these colours (Ozzie Kheir-owned) know how to win.
“In his first three runs he was probably still fat. He’s a five-year-old bull that had been off the scene basically 18 months.
“While he was going well, he was still racing himself into fitness.”
Forgot You is now likely to have a quick turnaround and a trip to Sydney, with Saturday’s A$2 million Five Diamonds (1800m) at Rosehill, a race restricted to five-year-olds, on the radar.
Winning jockey Blake Shinn paid homage to the stable for getting the horse back to his best.
“We’ve got to give a lot of credit to Trent and Natalie. They’ve done well to get him back and place the horse nicely,” Shinn said.
“This was an obvious race for him to get the horse back winning. I know that is easier said than done but the horse was building up to something nicely.
“He had the race in his keeping a long way out and he was quite dominant in the end, it was a good effort.
“They were going very fast and a lot of the horses came off the bridle a long way out, and so did I. But I was trying to keep a fair bit in the tank and save him for as long as possible.
“The horse in front of me took me into the straight for as long as I needed to and when I asked him for a bit of an effort his stamina kicked in and his class and that got him over the line.
Bred by Waikato Stud’s Garry Chittick, Forgot You is out of the winning O’Reilly mare Simply You (NZ), a three-quarter sister to stakes-winners Escadaire (NZ) (O’Reilly), Bonny O’Reilly (NZ) (O’Reilly) and Group Two winner Rare Insight (NZ) (O’Reilly), dam of Gr.1 Coolmore Classic (1500m) winner Steps In Time (Danehill Dancer).
Simply You is a daughter of multiple Group One winning sprinter Glamour Puss (NZ) (Tale of the Cat).
Forgot You was purchased by Busuttin Racing for A$330,000 at the Sydney two-year-old sale after being prepared by Ohukia Lodge on behalf of Waikato Stud.
