Calvo to bring more Christmas cheer

Tuesday 17 December 2013, 5:39pm

Calvo's recent Rosehill win came as a surprise to punters but not his trainer Lee Curtis.

The gelding, who started at $51 in a 1500m benchmark 75, returns to race over the same distance on his home track on Saturday.

While he hasn't been the most consistent of horses, Calvo also hasn't been the luckiest and Curtis is hoping his last-start success has given him the confidence for a repeat.

"I thought he was a 25-1 shot that day and was surprised at the price they put up," Curtis said.

"His first-up run was huge then second-up not so good.

"I can't have him any better. He is very well in himself and I'm pretty sure he won't start at that price again."

Calvo beat Darley's Imperil on November 30 and that horse is again among the 13 entries for Saturday's benchmark 79.

Promising three-year-old Koroibete, who ran third in the Rosehill race, franked the form with a strong win at Randwick last Saturday.

While it was only a restricted race win for Calvo, it signalled what Curtis hopes is a turn-around in fortune for his stable which he says is in a re-building phase.

A decade ago, Curtis had Group One winner Mistegic as his headline act and also had Private Steer in his stable.

After being transferred to John O'Shea, Private Steer went on to win three Group One races

"It's been a bit quiet for various reasons over the past few years but things are going well," Curtis said.

"I had a small bet on Calvo so that made me happy and it was great for the owners so hopefully he can do it again."

Curtis also has high hopes for two-year-old filly Press Report who finished second to the Peter Snowden-trained Memorial on debut the same day Calvo won.

"I think she's a superstar," Curtis said.

"She is having a short break and will be back when the big races are on in case she's as good as I think she is.

"She is a big unit. She's 16.1 hands and more than 500 kilos and has a big future."

Apprentice Damien Thornton, who has had his indentures transferred from his father Glenn in Victoria to Gerald Ryan at Rosehill, retains the ride on Calvo.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »