06 July 2022 | Courtesy of News Corp
THE big, bustling and brilliant Bondi Lockdown is back racing in time for a Queensland raid, but trainer-driver Aaron Dunn admits a trip north is only a “remote” chance.
Bondi Lockdown looked as exciting as any pacer in this part of the world when he did a power of work and ran second in a blisteringly run Group 1 Chariots Of Fire at Menangle on February 19.
Dunn then turned-down some monstrous offers for the four-year-old before he raced below his best and had some issues in the Miracle Mile at his most recent start on March 12.
Bondi Lockdown was then sent out for a spell and a Queensland “Constellations” winter raid was ruled out.
“The plan was to give him eight weeks out and really take our time, but he just won’t cop it. He gets too keen and he’s all racehorse,” Dunn said. “I wanted to bring him back slowly, but he made up his own mind and he dropped 30 of the 40kgs he put on while spelling in the space of a few weeks.”
Hence the ironic situation where Bondi Lockdown returns to racing in a ho-hum Cranbourne free-for-all on Saturday night while a race many think he would have won – the $305,000 Group 1 Rising Sun – is run at Albion Park.
Victory at Cranbourne would leave Dunn with a big decision – whether to go to Queensland for the $350,000 Group 1 Blacks A Fake on July 23 or stay home with a longer term focus.
“Queensland is an option, but not a high priority right now. I’d say it’s only a remote chance,” he said.
“But he’s racing this week and if he came out and went enormously, I’d have to think about it.
“My preference at this stage is to give him two or three runs in coming weeks, freshen him again, and aim at the Victoria Cup in our backyard in October.”
Lurking in Dunn’s mind is how well Bondi Lockdown has come back after his break.
“He was flying, I mean working absolutely sensationally a couple of weeks ago, then I just had a little hiccup for a week when he had a minor bout of colic,” he said. “He’s over it, but he’s still getting back to that sort of work he was doing.”
So how does Dunn assess this Cranbourne race?
“I was hoping he would draw the back row and I could follow them out and make an early or mid race move, but there’s only seven in it so I’ve drawn outside the front,” he said.
“As I’ve said, he’s all racehorse and he’s fresh, so he’ll want to run off the gate. I’m pretty sure I’ll find the lead, but I just hope he doesn’t have to spend too much early petrol first-up.”
Significantly, Dunn plans to bypass the Victorian Inter Dominion series in November/December because of the format.
“He’s only a four-year-old and the four runs in a fortnight is hard enough, but when you throw in all the travel to four different venues for each night … I don’t think it’s something I need to ask of him at this stage of his career.
“I can go to Victoria Cup, freshen again and then Kilmore and Hunter Cups and then up to Sydney to have a crack at the Miracle Mile. He showed he’s good enough to win a Miracle Mile if I’ve got him where he needs to be.”
- Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.
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