When Horsham horsemen Aaron Dunn and Steve Blacker decided to “shell out some of their hard earned” to buy a four-year-old gelding with six starts under the belt, one doubts if they quite expected to reap the rewards of the last 12 weeks.
Keayang Bazooka had shown some ability for the Marg Lee stable before being advertised, posting an all-the-the way victory in restricted company at Hamilton, but with horses galore the owner/breeders had decided it was time to move the horse on.
And so, just 10 days after finishing fourth as an odds-on-favourite at Hamilton, Keayang Bazooka stepped out more than 550km away from his old stamping ground to contest a C0 2190m at Mildura for trainer Barry Dunn, Aaron and Steve.
That afternoon the gelded son of Sportswriter and Deltas Dream sat outside the leader and made a moderate lot look just that with an 11-metre victory in a mile rate of 2:07.3 for the 2190-metre jaunt.
Nevertheless, as they say, “the money’s the same whatever” and with a winner’s cheque of $3990 plus a $3500 Vicbred bonus it made for a most enjoyable trip home for the trio.
Keayang Bazooka followed up three weeks later with another win at the same track and a combination of growing confidence, a change of scenery and being well placed has seen the pacer steadily progress through the grades.
The team’s latest success came last Friday at Mildura in the $7000 Tasco Petroleum C2-4 Pace over the sprint trip of 1790 metres. Drawn out in gate five, Keayang Bazooka raced wide early before Dunn worked his charge forward to occupy the spot outside the leader. From there they dictated a moderate mid-race tempo of 64.5 seconds before raising the bar with final splits in 28.8 and 28.7 to score by 1.2 metres.
The Dunn and Blacker combo have to date sent their “bargain buy” around 13 times for five wins, five seconds, on third and $27,350 in stakes. Together with their Vicbred bonus, ‘The Bazooka’ has earned a bank of $30,850 – reason to smile anywhere, anytime.
“This is the first one I’ve ever raced that we didn’t breed or buy at the yearling sales,” Aaron said. “I probably should have tried it sooner.”
Photo by Claire Weston Photography.
