Adornetto heading to Cairns following Prairie breakthrough

By Jordan Gerrans

North Queensland’s Mat Adornetto has been the man behind the scenes working on gallopers for decades and now he is back training winners himself.

The Ingham-based Adornetto has long been a horse chiropractor throughout the northern region of the Sunshine State, travelling as far south as Mackay and up north to Cairns to work on race horses.

The 54-year-old has worked on horses for stables such as Cairns’ Stephen Massingham and the Rowe barn at Cannon Park, among others, over his time in the sport.

“I have lots of clients and they are happy with what I do,” he said.

He has worked on horses all the way up and down the North Queensland coast as well as travelling inland to stables at Charters Towers and Tolga.

And, now with a little more time on his hands, Adornetto has returned to the training ranks with success.

The Italian-bred Adornetto prepared his first winner since 2008 on Saturday afternoon at Prairie Jockey Club with Dubai Eagle getting the money in Benchmark 45 Handicap grade over 1400 metres.

He last trained a winner back in the 2008-09 season and did not start a galloper in a race for more than a decade.

With more time on his hands now with his children grown up, Adornetto was keen to get back to conditioning gallopers, as well as helping out other stables with his chiropractic endeavours.

“So, I am back into the horses,” he said.

Prairie is based in the Leichardt racing district and is inland from Townsville. 

After breaking through with a victory at Prairie on Saturday, the Adornetto yard will be out to keep the ball rolling at Cannon Park this Saturday with three gallopers nominated.

The Northern Queensland Winter Racing Carnival heads to FNQ for Cairns Newmarket day this Saturday. 

Adornetto has three horses set to face the starter: Nonno Joe, Bells Approaching and Fudging.

“Hopefully I can get another couple of winners before I put all the horses out over the summer months when it gets hotter up here,” he said.

Dubai Eagle had improved in his last couple of runs at Ingham and Townsville before heading to the annual meeting at Prairie on Saturday.

The gelding appreciated the dirt surface at Prairie and scored by three lengths.

“He is a nice horse but he has always drawn bad barriers of late,” the trainer said.

“He was able to draw a good barrier this time around I think he liked the sand ground out at Prairie.

“I think he it suited him, the sand more than the grass. He won well on Saturday so he must love it.”

The Adornetto barn had been knocking on the door to grab a much-needed victory recently, preparing a trio of top three finishers since April of last year.

The stable has four gallopers in work and prepared their first winner back in May of 2002.

Adornetto enjoyed great success with a galloper named Borzov from 2002 until 2005, winning five races across the north of the state.

Cairns’ meeting this Saturday is headlined by the $75,000 Cairns Newmarket, with the 2023 Cairns Cup to be held the following Saturday afternoon.