Longport nearing return to racing

Sunday 18 August 2013, 4:50pm

Trainer Dan Bougoure is considering a home town start in Brisbane as the kick-off point for expensive stable acquisition Longport's spring carnival campaign.

Longport was one of a number of high profile racehorses sold by Nathan Tinkler under the Magic Millions banner in May and was knocked down to Bougoure for $800,000.

"She did her first bit of three-quarter work last week and is about three weeks off having a barrier trial," Bougoure said.

"The ultimate plan this prep is the Myer Classic at Flemington on Derby Day."

Bougoure is sifting through programs for Longport and said he might even start the mare in Brisbane before she heads to Melbourne.

"Ideally I'd like to give her two lead up runs before the Myer Classic," he said.

"Maybe one here and one in Melbourne. It'll just depend on what sort of races are around.

"There are set weights races here that she can get into relatively well because she's only won three races so that might be an option."

Bougoure is happy with the progress Longport has made since joining his stable.

"She's a lovely mare to have around and she's got a pretty handy fresh record," he said.

When trained by John Thompson, Longport won the Group Two Tea Rose Stakes on protest from Norzita.

However, Norzita gained her revenge by relegating Longport to the runner's-up position at their next clash in the Group One Flight Stakes (1600m) at Randwick and again in the Group One Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m) at Rosehill in April.

If Longport can recapture her best form this campaign it will give Bougoure some solace after the death of promising colt Tip Top Tiger.

The son of Fastnet Rock died after suffering an allergic reaction to a penicillin injection to treat a minor leg injury.

"He cut his leg while he was spelling. Nothing too serious, probably from mucking around in the paddock," Bougoure said.

"We just followed the normal procedure of giving him some antibiotics and he just dropped dead.

"It looks like it was a reaction to the penicillin."

Tip Top Tiger started $2.40 favourite when he finished fifth at his first and only start at Eagle Farm in February but the colt was highly rated by Bougoure after an impressive win in a barrier trial last year.

– 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 »