
GEORGE Osborne is the first to admit he has always had mixed feelings towards the obviously talented, but hard to predict Hallowed Ground.
But it's fair to say the three-year-old gelding is starting to win his Kyneton trainer over after making it back-to-back wins on the Ballarat Synthetic on Friday.
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An emphatic five-length victory with the in-form John Allen in the saddle was no ordinary win.
Hallowed Ground ($2.05 favourite), by dual Group 1-winner Hallowed Crown out of the mare Ocean Tempest, set a new track record of 1:04.39 for the 1100-metre distance.
Adding to the strength of the win, the gelding was well up in grade following his maiden win 11 days earlier and was stepping back in distance.
It's a performance that has Osborne contemplating a trip to Flemington with Hallowed Ground.
"(It was) fantastic - what can I say? He's hard work and statistically they just don't do it," he said.
"He came back 100-metres in distance, which I thought was a bonus, and he's gone up two grades, not one.
"Probably the biggest factor was Johnny (Allen) loves him. He's ridden him in jump-outs early in his career and he wasn't able to get on him at a stage where we started him.
"That, with the addition of the synthetic, I guess has been really good. Dry tracks are his friend, wet tracks are hopeless, so we won't see him on one of those again.
"It was a fantastic result. I was a little surprised at what he did today against that opposition, but he got away from them that quick.
"Good sprinters put them away on the turn; they put a gap on them and they put everything else under pressure, so he might be better than we think."
Osborne, who has notched up 18 wins and 34 placings this season, is starting to see plenty of upside in Hallowed Ground.
"It looks that way at the moment, doesn't it," he said.
"(But) let's take it one step at a time and see how we go.
"He's still three (years old) - if it doesn't rain and we could find a dry track it would be really good.

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"In the back of my mind, maybe down the straight at Flemington, I don't know.
"He won't have a fence to follow, but he'll find a dry track which is the most important thing."
The win capped a huge day for Allen, who finished with four wins and two seconds from six rides at Ballarat.
Hallowed Ground, who debuted with a third on his home track at Kyneton last November, boosted his early-career record to two wins and two placings from six starts for $37,650 in earnings.
Of his beaten runners on Friday, Osborne was the most encouraged by Frosty Lass, who finished second in the 1200-metres maiden behind the Tom Dabernig-trained Metal Rock.
"For her first run, one trial, it was really good," he said.
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"She was entitled to peak a long way before she did, but she kept coming, which was fantastic.
"And Coeur De Paris was absolutely as good.
"Going forward, for their first-up runs, they were super."
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