McNaulty hoping to leave rivals Gobsmacked at Wedderburn

Wedderburn Cup day is one of Marong horseman Shaun McNaulty’s favourite race meetings.

“It’s one of our home tracks,” he says.

“It’s a great day. I love it.”

So he admits there’s a touch of sentimentality in targeting the $14,500 Loddon Shire Wedderburn Pacing Cup on Sunday.

McNaulty has Gobsmacked, who he part-owns and trains, in the 2555m assignment and as much as he would like to win the feature, he’s far from confident at this stage of the gelding’s campaign.

“I’m not saying he can’t win it,” he said.

“At his best good he’s enough.

“He’s getting there, but I’m not sure that he’s quite there yet.”

McNaulty says it is not a question of ability, it is all about Gobsmacked turning up on the day in the right frame of mind.

“He’s a rare unit,” he said.

“He hasn’t always been like it, but he gets a big angry.”

He said the six-year-old had a tendency to run the gate too hard and then pull.

And in an effort to overcome this, since Gobsmacked’s return from almost six months off the scene, McNaulty has primarily targeted races which place him on the second row.

Consequently, he has overall been happy with the way Gobsmacked has been going.

“Everything’s gone pretty well,” he said.

“I was happy with his first run at Mildura. He finished off well.

“He probably should have won at Maryborough, but he got on his knees on the last turn and lost a length.

“Bendigo was really disappointing.

“He was probably unlucky at Kilmore where they went too slow early.”

These runs have produced two fourths, a seventh and last-start third, with the worst of the outings the only time he has started on the front row.

So McNaulty’s biggest concern going to Wedderburn is Gobsmacked’s draw in three.

“If he can run the gate and settle without firing up he might be okay,” he said.

For McNaulty, he’s hoping it is just a matter of time before Gobsmacked turns things around and delivers on the promise he showed earlier in his career, which included five wins in the space of eight starts during 2020. He hasn’t won since May that year.

Gobsmacked has only been sparingly raced over the past year, with McNaulty saying it was all part of the process of getting him back to the form when he was “airborne”.

“It hasn’t been a specific plan. He just wasn’t going as well as I’d like, so I just kept turning him out and trying again,” he said.

“We’re making progress. We just have to have patience.”

Whatever Gobsmacked does at Wedderburn, McNaulty’s main target is to get him back to “town”.

“That’s the aim. He’s good enough to win an M0. That’s where the money is,” he said.

Sunday has the potential to be a huge day for McNaulty.

As well as Gobsmacked, he also part-owns one of the top chances in the $14,500 Insurance House Wedderburn Trotters’ Cup in Chissy.

Chissy is trained by McNaulty’s brother Jason, who also has Travel Bug in the race.

Travel Bug won the feature last year, beating The Penny Drops.