Benalla trainer surges to victory with Wave Reviews

Mind you, the horse’s first win was in Salisbury in the UK, before having his last start at Royal Ascot a few weeks later (and finished eighth of nine) and was almost immediately on a plane and on his way to Australia – and Wodonga (via Benalla).

He jumped well in the field of 11 and was quickly positioned behind the two frontrunners, staying there for most of the race, but once they straightened Wave Reviews put up a dogged fight down the straight to claim the leaders – and hold off the fast-finishing Valoyd to win by half a length.

However, Peter Burgun, his Australian trainer, simply couldn’t keep the smile off his face, declaring straight after the finish he thought his horse had gone out at a good price.

“And I got a bit on it,” he laughed.

He also agreed the mini-break after its win at Moonee Valley on December 6 had also helped freshen Wave Reviews.

“Coming up to the Valley he had already had five or six runs into that race spread,” Burgun added.

“So we gave him two weeks at home in the swimming pool, we didn’t even put a saddle on him, before getting him back into work, and we had also targeted this race as his next start,” he said.

“Now we are going back to the Valley, there is a 64 mile there in a fortnight and this run has worked in perfectly to help get him ready for that.”

Burgun said he also believed there was more improvement to come as the horse went into this race carrying a little bit of condition.

He said that could be seen underneath and under the saddle.

But felt today’s run would “top him off nicely” after the horse had added two wins in a row to make it three from 22 career starts.

“When he first came to us he had a low-grade tendon and bad feet and other things but this preparation and last preparation everything has started to come together and the horse is starting to repay all the owners who have stuck with him,” Burgun explained.

After paying $41 at the Valley and $10 the chances Burgun will see a price that long at the horse’s next few starts are pretty slim.

But he was happy to warn the bookies. “If they keep dishing it out I’ll take it.”

Jockey Shirley Hunter said the horse always takes a few steps to get going “and then he gets into a nice rhythm and today we had a couple of fast horses setting the pace so I was happy to take the sit”.

“After that I just concentrated on making sure we didn’t get boxed in because he takes a bit of winding up, but today he just kept going strongly,” she added.

“I thought he might get a bit tired at the end because he hasn’t had a run for a while.

“Actually we thought he might run a place today because of that extra condition but he did it really well.”