A change is as good as a holiday, even for racehorses. Just ask trainer Troy Corstens.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Corstens, who trains in partnership with his father Leon, is enjoying his best run with their horses for sometime and Troy attributes the success to having three different complexes in various parts of Victoria.
With horses stabled at Flemington, Geelong and Benella - Team Corstens are keeping their four-legged chargers from going stale as they create new landscapes for them to be trained from.
Corstens told ACM Racing his stable is lucky to have access to wonderful training facilities at the various locations.
"We're really lucky to have great facilities for our horses," he said. "It's all about keeping the horses fresh in the mind. The horses seem to thrive with the change in environments.
"I suppose the horses are no different to humans, they like a bit of a change or a break away from the daily grind. We can mix it up for them.
"We're always changing their routines but there are some horses who like to stay in the one environment. Our Geelong stable can take horses down to the beach to fresh them up while the horses at Benella seem to thrive with training from the paddocks and Flemington has outstanding facilities."
One such horse that seems to thrive on the country campaign at Benella is Subliminal. The four-year-old mare is one of four runners Team Corstens has running on the nine-race program at Flemington on Saturday.
Subliminal, who has won her last three starts at Wagga, Bendigo and Caulfield, will be ridden by in-form apprentice jockey Jaylah Kennedy when she runs in a $150,000 benchmark race over 1400 metres.
"Subliminal is a great advertisement for our training program," Corstens said. "Subliminal has been at all our training locations at various times of her career but she really thrives at our Benella stable.
"She just loves being out in the big open paddocks during the day at our farm at Lurg. We just load her up in the float and take her into the Benella track for gallops and then take her back home to the open paddocks. Subliminal just loves it.
"Saturday will be her 11th run in this campaign. There were a couple of times when I thought she is nearing the end of her preparation but then she won her last three. It did go through my mind we'll give her a break after the Caulfield win but she's bounced back.
"We'll see how she goes on Saturday before making any plans about future runs for her."
Subliminal has drawn barrier 11 and Corstens said it can be a sticky gate from the 1400 metre start.
"I'm a bit concerned about barrier 11," he said. "It's not the most ideal gate. Subliminal's racing pattern is to go forward. Jaylah is riding in great form.
"She won on Subliminal at Caulfield so she's got a good understanding of the mare. The instruction to Jaylah will be to push forward and try and get a sit in the run."
Bet365 rate Subliminal an $11 chance in the early betting markets.
Kennedy will be on-board Lady In Pink for Corstens as the lightly-raced filly chases her third consecutive metropolitan victory in a three-year-old race over 2000 metres.
"Lady In Pink is a bit like Subliminal - she's also been in work for a while," Corstens said. "Lady In Pink shows a ton of promise.
"Her last two wins at Sandown and Flemington have been full of promise and I've got my fingers crossed she can keep up the winning run on Saturday. We'll probably give her a break after Saturday but we'll just wait and see how she goes.
"We may get her ready for some nice races in the spring. The three-kilogram claim for Jaylah is a real bonus on Saturday. I would say she's our best chance of winning from our four runners on Saturday."
Lady In Pink is the $4.80 favourite with Bet365 for the race.
Stay Silent and Marble Nine are the other runners for Team Corstens.
"Marble Nine is a really nice horse," he said. "His three runs have been full of merit. Two of them are wins in the country while his other run resulted in a second placing at Flemington.
"He's trained on from that performance. Stay Silent has had the one run at Caulfield. He's a slow maturing horse who will derive plenty of benefit out of Saturday's race."
Bet365 are betting $34 about Stay Silent and $7 for Marble Nine.
