Black And Bent In A World Of His Own

Saturday, 19 June 2010 08:45

Four-year-old Black And Bent has produced one of the most dominant wins in memory in The Australian Hurdle at Sandown.

Jockey Steven Pateman declared the Black Hawk gelding was the best jumper he had ridden and should be aimed at the champion hurdles in England while plans are already in motion to qualify him for an invitation to next year's Nakayama Grand Jump in Japan.

"He is an absolute superstar," Pateman said.

"I have been waiting all my career to ride such a good horse."

"He won that easily. I'm just so thrilled."

Trained by Robert Smerdon, Black And Bent ($1.75 fav) swapped the lead with Desert Master on several occasions but had the race won a long way from the winning post.

Rounding the home turn he broke six lengths clear of the field and turned the event into a procession.

The official winning margin was 12 lengths but it looked a much bigger gap to the second horse Corries ($26), who ran on from second last, and his Robbie Laing-trained stablemate Vindicating ($15) who was another 1-3/4 lengths away third.

Black And Bent's half-brother and stablemate Some Are Bent was scratched from The Australian Hurdle suffering from a respiratory infection.

Brad McLean is the regular rider of both horses but was booked for Some Are Bent and had to look on as Black And Bent triumphed for Pateman.

Pateman said he rode Black And Bent like he was the best horse in the race and that the gelding jumped himself to the front several times in the race.

"I had the mindset that I was on a far better horse," Pateman said.

"The only jump he tucked in to was the second last because I actually steadied him as he had his revs up. He was home a long way out."

Smerdon said the improvement Black And bent had made in his second season as a jumper was remarkable.

He has won 12 of his 32 starts including his last six starts, three of them on the flat.

His staying power on the flat was never more evident than on Saturday, especially after he jumped the last hurdle.

Smerdon said Black And Bent would now be aimed at steeplechase racing and try to win an invitation to the Nakayama Grand Jump in April

"He's made a huge leap of improvement in performance in the last year," Smerdon said.

"I'm not sure how good they've got to be (to be world class) but he is pretty good."

"The short-term goal is to get him through to a feature steeplechase later in the year and hopefully get an invite to Japan."

Pictures: Colin Bull