By Isaac Murphy
Reckless Choice was a problem child for the Steven O’Dea stable in earlier preps with the slow maturing gelding becoming known as a perennial place getter in a handful of his first nine starts.
A frustrated O’Dea said he knew the horse had ability and ultimately it was a stay at Aquis Farm that made the “penny drop” for the now four-year-old gelding who is on the verge of joining open company after a dominant win in the Class 3 Plate over 1600 metres at Doomben.
“It’s amazing he ran a lot of placings before he was able to break through in his maiden, he’d loom up in those races and just couldn’t put them away,” O’Dea said.
“It was literally the space of a few weeks where it turned around he spent a bit of time at Aquis and came back won his maiden and he’s been heading in the right direction ever since.”
Reckless Choice went on to a pair of wins over the 1600 at the Sunshine Coast and has started his most recent prep with a second in The Magic Millions Country Cup and a close sixth at Royal Randwick leading into the Class 3 Plate.
O’Dea said young hoop Boris Thornton did a good job slotting into a nice spot in the run and was looking forward to what the gelding was capable of further into his prep.
“He looked pretty comfortable throughout the run, the tempo was even and Boris (Thornton) was able to tuck him away and produce him at the right time,” O’Dea said.
“It’s a really pleasing victory because he’s done it with plenty in hand and has clearly come back a better horse this prep.”
“It’s nice to get a nice soft win on the board today, this really gives us a platform to put him through his grades and hopefully get some open company black type form in the near future.”
O’Dea said he was most pleased with the horse’s sharp acceleration which he thought would continue to be an asset over the longer trips.
“I was really happy with his turn of foot, I think he’ll do his racing up over a mile from now on and if he can reproduce that sprint he’ll win some good races,” O’Dea said.
Jockey Boris Thornton said he was rapt to get back on the gelding for the first time since his last prep and said the horse turned out spot on for the run.
“He was quite keen in the run for me today, but after we found our position he relaxed nicely and literally just towed me into the straight all I had to do was steer him in the right direction,” Thornton said.“
We had a bit of a wall in front of us coming around the turn, but with a good horse like this when the gap came he took it and put them to bed nicely.”
“He’s improving each time I get on him and is definitely heading towards some tougher races.”