IN JUST three months since his arrival in Bendigo, Nick Smart has already made a big impression.
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The third generation trainer hopes to make an even bigger one on Wednesday, when he saddles up his first runner in the Group 3 Jayco Bendigo Cup.
Smart is targeting the $400,000 feature race with emerging stayer and recent Adelaide Listed race winner Single Handed.
A 30-1 chance in betting on cup eve, Single Handed is looking to make amends for an unplaced effort in this month's Moe Cup (2050m), which followed the five-year-old gelding's win in the Listed Tokyo City Cup (1800m) at Morphettville in late September.
Preparing for the horse's biggest test to date, the former South Australian trainer conceded his preparation had not exactly gone to plan.
"We went to Moe, after his good win in Adelaide, thinking he would be really hard to beat again, and the idea was to come out of that with a couple of good wins under the belt and head into the Bendigo Cup full of confidence," Smart said.
"Through the circumstances of the day, there was a power outage at the racecourse and a delay of two hours. If they had run the race on time they would have run on a soft 6, but because of the delay it ended up being on a heavy 8.
"He travelled up like the winner, but once the lad asked him to quicken, the wheels spun.
"We now know he's not a heavy tracker, but we don't have to worry about that (on Wednesday). But you still have to be able to bounce back from that.
"If he had won the other day, he would be 10 or 20-1, not 30-1. It was certainly no reflection on the horse or how he was going; it probably showed how well he was going that he only got beaten by five lengths.
"He just couldn't go a yard on that heavy ground."
Smart said Single Handed, who will again be ridden by Declan Bates, had worked well on the course proper at Bendigo last Thursday and was in good shape for a tilt at the feature event.
There remains but one concern over the gelding.
"I guess we are going to finds out whether he can run 2400m," he said.
"The good thing is he should jump well and hold a spot up on the speed, and should be in the first five or six from a good draw.
"At least we got the home-track draw.
"He's come back a better horse," added Smart in reference to Single Handed's first-up second at Bendigo and follow-up win in Adelaide.
Smart branded the 16-horse cup field, headed by international raider Raheen House and a host of horses who have been contesting Group races, as extremely even.
"It's a good quality field, but I don't think there's any stars in there," he said.
"There would be six or eight horses in there who are all winning chances, which is how you want it when you are down the order a bit like us.
"You don't want to have to beat that star or that one real standout."
A cup win would cap a successful move for Smart, whose horses have consistently finished in the money since his arrival in early-August.
"I'm loving the life here in Bendigo; it's an enjoyable lifestyle and the horses are all happy," he said.
"They have all settled in well are going as good, and in most cases better, than they were in Ballarat.
"We are working 12, including some young ones who are just coming back in. We have the four of five like Single Handed racing and the others on their way up."
Smart said one aim in Wednesday's race was to go a few places better - preferably four - than his father William Smart, who trained the fifth placegetter Silent Surround in the 2012 Bendigo Cup, won by Puissance de Lune.
Locally-trained Bendigo Cup runners
2019: Single Handed (Nick Smart); Super Girl (Josh Julius)
2018: Red Alto (Brent Stanley) 1st of 13
2016: Desert Samurai (Adam O'Neill) 6th of 9
2015: Savannah Moon (Rod Symons) 9th of 11
2014: Caves (Danny Curran) 9th of 9
2010: Carbon Trader (Shane Fliedner) 5th of 16
2009: I Got One (Shane Fliedner) 9th of 15
2008: Hey Jeune (Brendon Hearps) 7th of 14; Done And Dusted (Allen Browell) 13th of 14
2007: Hoodlum (Shane Fliedner) 2nd of 12
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