Black Heart Bart back in Perth for Railway
Black Heart Bart will be back where it all began when the multiple Group One winner bids to snap an uncharacteristic winless streak in the Railway Stakes.
The seven-year-old has returned to his former stamping ground for Saturday’s $1 million handicap at Ascot.
Black Heart Bart made his debut at Ascot in late 2013 and raced 26 times for trainer Vaughn Sigley for 10 wins when he was trained in the west.
Since being transferred to Victoria’s premier trainer Darren Weir early in 2016, Black Heart Bart has added six wins from 19 starts including five at Group One level.
Black Heart Bart, who carries 59kg in the Railway, will be out to snap a six-race winless run on Saturday and will be chasing his first Perth Group One victory.
“It would be very satisfying for the owners,” jockey Brad Rawiller said.
“It would be very satisfying for me. My first Group One win was in the old Fruit ‘n’ Veg Stakes in Perth (Niconero, 2006), which is now the Kingston Town Stakes.”
Three of Rawiller’s 23 Group One wins have been in Perth.
Black Heart Bart was placed in three of his four Melbourne spring runs but was given a break after he was unplaced in the Underwood to get over a foot issue.
“This preparation he’s been as game as ever but at the end of the day he still just hasn’t been 100 per cent with his foot,” Rawiller said.
“I think he has run admirably against top-class horses, and they’ve gone and set him for Perth just to give him that bit of extra time so that he can be at his best.
“And hopefully that is the case.”
Weir’s Warrnambool stable foreman Jarrod McLean, who is with Black Heart Bart in Perth, told RSN927 on Thursday the gelding was pain-free and looking terrific for Saturday.
Rawiller has ridden Black Heart Bart twice on the training track in the past couple of weeks and says he is going well.
The weight-for-age Kingston Town Stakes Stakes two weeks after the Railway is also on the agenda.
“But when you still look at him for Saturday, he’s still won four Group Ones at weight-for-age where he has carried 59 kilos, so I’m certainly not going out there thinking it’s going to slow him down,” Rawiller said.
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