24 December 2018 | AMY REES
IT was an exciting night last Wednesday for trainer – driver partnership Mat and Gemma Rue with pacer Fouroeight winning at his first start back from an injury after almost 18 months between runs.
Trained by Gemma and driven by her husband Mat, the six-year-old gelding proved too strong for his rivals sitting outside the leader for the majority of the race and running away to score comfortably in a final quarter of 27.3 seconds.
Winning the Group 3 Gold Chalice Final in 2016 and running fourth in the Group 1 Alabar NSW Breeders Challenge Colts and Geldings Final as a three-year-old Fouroeight looked to have a promising career ahead of him.
“We’ve always had a high opinion of him and we knew he would mature and get better with age,” Gemma said.
After only finishing 6.7 metres off of the winner in the Group 1 Alabar NSW Breeders Challenge Four-Year-Old Entires and Geldings Final last year the gelding went for a well-deserved spell.
Unfortunately, just before he was ready to return to racing Fouroeight injured himself in the paddock resulting in a fractured pelvis and tailbone which meant seven months’ recovery with no guarantee of him returning to the racetrack.
“We spoke to many people about horses who have broken their pelvis, some make it back and some just don’t,” Gemma said.
“We were lucky, but even with the all clear we were still unsure as to how he would cope due to his size.
“After a slow preparation back to the track everything looks to be perfect and he seems to be better than ever”.
Fouroeight is set to step out in the Group 2 Kriden Park Shirley Turnbull Memorial at Bathurst’s TAB Carnival of Cups meeting this Wednesday and has drawn barrier one.
“The distance (2790 metres) will be a task but with a good run on the fence he could definitely be in the money.”
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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