Torgersen finds winning ways at Gold Coast

Former Sydney stakes horse Torgersen responded to some new training tactics to score his first win in nearly two years at the Gold Coast on Saturday.

Torgersen ($7) charged home to beat the early leader and favourite Dreams Aplenty ($1.55) by a length in the PFD Queensland Handicap (1400m).

As a three-year-old Torgersen was placed in the Tulloch Stakes and Packer Plate in Sydney as well as finishing only 2 1/2 lengths from the winner Hauraki in last year’s Group One Epsom Handicap.

However, he had not won since December 2015 and trainer Chris Waller decided to send him to his Gold Coast stable in a last-ditch bid to reignite his winning desire.

Waller’s Queensland manager Paul Shailer said it had been a matter of getting Torgersen’s mind back on racing.

“Obviously at his best he would be hard to beat in races up here. But after he got beaten in a restricted race at Doomben first-up we decided to try some different tactics,” Shailer said.

“We have had him over the jumps and working off a pony. It seems to have done the trick.”

The Waller Queensland stable has now had seven winners in the past few weeks including Loving Home who won Friday’s Port Macquarie Cup.