KINGSTON, Jamaica - CONDITIONING a horse to win after one month’s lay-off is a common routine in the horse racing world but when a trainer stretches his horse’s lay-off to six months or longer, and he wins that first start back, then that is something special.
Such was the case with the David Powell-trained Undecided on Saturday, February 11 when the six-year-old grey/roan horse returned from an eight-month break to easily beat rivals in a five-year-old and upwards Claiming ($180,000-$150,000) contest that also included native-bred six-year-olds and upwards (non-winners of two) travelling 5 ½ furlongs (1,100m).
Undecided, ridden by Marshall Porter and running without the blinkers on, raced behind the leaders at the start as Plutologist (Natalie Berger) set the pace ahead of Valiant (Roger Hewitt) and Obsession (Romario Spencer), going around the half-mile (800 m) turn.
Undecided came into view as the field approached the lane, slipping down into third place as Valiant took up the running ahead of Plutologist, and brought the field into the lane looking good on the lead. Undecided entered the straight on the outside of the runners — and it didn’t take long for the long-striding horse under superb guidance from a seemingly re-energized Porter, to seize control of the race when he surged to the front inside the final furlong.
Undecided went on to win by 4 lengths at the wire, with Valiant finishing in second place. Avery and Ayan was another 13¼ lengths adrift in third place as the final tie for the event was recorded at 1:13.0.
“Well, Undecided had a shoulder problem and so he had to take a rest to heal before he could return to competitive racing. So, we started to train him late and got him sound enough to run a race, and we got him a race in time,” Powell said.
“It was a good performance from him to win, and the jockey [Marshall Porter] rode a very good race as well. I told him not to rush the horse, just take his time and wait,” added the trainer.
