Conners Says Be Patient With Chubby Chasm

Thursday, 10 June 2010 00:09

Aquanita trainer Heath Conners has warned punters not to jump off his stable star Chasm following a disappointing first up performance at Caulfield almost three weeks ago.

"Be patient with him," Conners said at track-work this morning.

"His goal this preparation is the Winter Championship Final, so judge him on that."

Conners is still firmly focused on a Spring assault with Chasm but concerns over the five-year-old gelding's weight called for a short winter preparation to bring him back into shape.

"Every preparation we have done a fair bit of ground work to get him into shape," said Conners.

"He is a big boy, about 565kg in fact, and getting him clean in his wind involves quite a bit of swimming and leg work"

"If we didn't give him the three or four runs now he wouldn't measure up in the Spring," Conners added.

A first up failure against Aquanita stablemate Veewap was expected to tighten the gelding up for this Saturday's $75,000 Winter Championship Series Heat (1400m) but to Conners disappointment Chasm has thrived since the outing.

"General soreness issues have limited his groundwork since his racing last Spring and to be honest he has done too well this time in, even putting weight on since his first up run," Conners added.

"It is great to see that he is enjoying his racing and the training environment here, but I'd like to have seen him shed a few more kilo's."

Whilst Conners expects the Group 3 winner to be competitive in his next few runs he believes punters will see the real Chasm in the $200,000 Winter Championship Final (1600m) at Flemington on July 10.

"I think his next two runs will have him in good fettle for the final and if he does trim up well by then he has to be one of the horses to beat," said Conners.

Conners is also expecting a forward showing from four-year-old Out Of The Desert at Cranbourne on Sunday following good form around the colt's last run.

"He has had two runs this time in for two placings and the horse that beat him last start backed up a few days later and won at Sandown so he should be hard to beat," said Conners.

Pictures: Sportpix & Quentin Lang