By Glenn Davis
Trainer Aiden St Vincent is hopeful of a successful return to his old stomping ground when Fearnley takes up the challenge to maintain his unbeaten record for the stable at the Sunshine Coast on Friday night.
St Vincent, 38, has a stable of 13 in work at Coffs Harbour and originally planned to run Fearnley at Doomben on Saturday until the four-year-old drew widely in a Class Three Plate (1050m).
His decision to also nominate Fearnley for the Class Two Handicap (1000m) at the Sunshine Coast was vindicated when the gelding drew barrier 5.
St Vincent is a son of former golfing professional and trainer Paul St Vincent and grew up in Tamworth in NSW.
Paul St Vincent is best known in racing as the trainer of former Tamworth star The Jackal who won successive Ramornie Handicaps in 2007-08 as well as Group and Listed races in NSW and Queensland.
He amassed over $1 million in prizemoney with 15 wins from 74 starts including victories in the Group 3 Star Kingdom at Rosehill in 2009 and Group 3 Healey Stakes at Eagle Farm in 2007.
“They were exciting times with The Jackal and a great experience being involved with horse who was close to being Group 1,” St Vincent said.
St Vincent has been based at Coffs Harbour for two years after he and his brother Kane started training at Caloundra 10 years ago before a brief stint at Esperance in Western Australia.
He also worked for a similar period as Chris Munce’s foreman at the Sunshine Coast.
Fearnley, a Jim Orman mount, was originally trained by Munce after being bought for $62,000 at the Magic Millions March sales in 2017.
However, he was transferred to Chris Anderson for his first start when he tailed off in a field of nine at Ipswich in October last year before St Vincent picked up the son of, I Am Invincible.
Fearnley had immediate success for St Vincent when he won his maiden first-up at Grafton in April before claiming a narrow win in a Class one at the same track two weeks later.
Fearnley hasn’t raced for five months but was placed in a barrier trial at Gosford on September 2.
“This is the perfect race for him with prizemoney better than average and he’ll be very competitive,” St Vincent said.
“I want to run him three weeks before a Highway race at Randwick on Everest day.
“Ultimately, the plans are to get him up to 1400 metres for a Country Championship qualifier at Coffs Harbour in February.”
Racing Queensland webnews September 26