“UNBELIEVABLE”.
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That’s how Bathurst trainer Paul Theobald has described his Birdsville Races experience ahead of Friday’s TAB Meeting at Dubbo.
Weather permitting, Theobald will send Attilius and Heeby Freenly to the Dubbo Turf Club with one eye on how his double performs after a rest from the experience of a lifetime on the edge of the Simpson dessert.
Theobald’s runners performed well at the Betoota Races in the lead-up to the Birdsville carnival.
With rain washing out the Saturday leg of the carnival before a bumper race day on the Sunday in the remote south west corner of Queensland, Theobald said his “eyes were opened” by the unique carnival, run each year since 1882.
“It’s just a different world up there,” Theobald said, the carnival now includes a 13-race program and and boasts prize money of $200,000, run on a dirt track.
“The methods they train with were unbelievable. I thought I’d go up there and do alright … I came back with a third and a fourth.”
Theobald said the gruelling nature of the dirt track meant life was tough for the hoops fortunate enough to book a ride for the iconic meeting.
“It’s just go from the barriers, the fittest and the fastest wins,” he added.
“You get out in front early or you get stuff kicked up on you at the back. My jockeys came back with bloody noses a couple of times.”
Attilius will run in the $20,000 Furney’s Horseland Class 1 Handicap (1000 metres), which is the penultimate race on the nine-race program for Friday’s meeting.
Heeby Freenly is an emergency for the same race, with Theobald more confident the pair will get a run in Muswellbrook on Sunday, with rain predicted for Dubbo late in the week.
“If we get the rain we’re expected to, I don’t think we’ll be racing in Dubbo,” he said.
“That’s why I’ve got them in Muswellbrook as well. They’ve been in a paddock for a week and I’m expecting them to race fresh.”
Attilius is a relative new comer to the racing scene, with just the nine starts and one win next to the four-year-old grey gelding’s name to date.
Theobald was confident the promising sprinter would soon begin to turn potential into places.
“It was a big trip up to Queensland, it was a 5000 (kilometres) round trip and they’ve had a great time in a paddock since we’ve been back,” he said.
“I’m hoping the trip has really matured them as horses. They’re both young but their beginning to blossom.
“They’re both busting to get out there and race now.”