Geared Up? No Way, Just Hay, Oats and Water

He only had four rivals but he got the job done nicely in the first at Warwick Farm - Geared Up (3g Testa Rossa-Certain, by Rory's Jester).

This showy little bloke, rated an 8.0, was bought by yours truly at Magic Millions 2007 ($100,000). He mightn't be Mr Tiz but he has cruising speed and a short, sharp turbo boost which so far has enabled him to win two city races and half his purchase price. I'm two-for-two with Testa Rossa , the other to race being G3 winner Ortensia (ex Aerate's Pick, by Picknicker).

Certain is one of those mares which seems capable of leaving a winner by anything: Sri Pekan (USA), Orpen (USA), Monashee Mountain (USA) (twice) and Testa Rossa so far.
I well recall her dam, Silver Tip (One Pound Sterling (GB)-Sun Wing, by Sallust), a Dave O'Sullivan trainee at Matamata. A nifty little sprinter (Geared Up isn't the biggest horse either), she won the 1986 G1 ARC Railway Handicap with a postage stamp on her back - Lance O'Sullivan, weighing all of 48 kgs. Ah, there's G1 form and G1 form. A couple of years later when she was retiring to stud I was involved in her purchase in a package with another, better, G1 winner, Eastern Joy (Three Legs (GB)-Diatrelic (Fr), by Diatome).

Unless you were supporting Kerrin McEvoy, the only thing harder to find than a winner at Warwick Farm was the racebook. Being an old hand, I know you can always buy a racebook from the ladies in the cloakroom. It's the first place you think of, naturally. So I'm wandering around the rails betting ring, on the public side, with my racebook in hand and desperados are rushing up to me, asking, "Where did you find it, where did you find it?" like it was the holy grail. People have to be desperate to talk to me, and they were. Like, even with free entry to soften the blow of the rapacious $40 charged at Randwick last Saturday, you'd expect to be able to buy a racebook somewhere near your point of entry or at a prominently placed kiosk. But not where I and hundreds of others came in at Warwick Farm, that's for sure.