Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Three years ago, Sangue Reale suffered a serious fetlock injury and was retired. But his career was revived, and then eleven months ago he was again in the wars, with a damaged foreleg.
Now an eight-year-old, Sangue Reale has made a wonderful and heartwarming comeback, and at Gloucester Park on Friday night he recorded his first victory for 20 months when he crushed his rivals with a superb victory in the $35,000 Howard Porter Memorial.
Making his third appearance after a ten-month absence, Sangue Reale was the $2.25 equal favourite with dashing last-start winner Talks Up A Storm when he gave a powerful frontrunning performance and was not extended in beating that pacer.
Ace trainer-reinsman Chris Voak did not lose faith in the New South Wales-bred gelding’s recuperative powers, and he is being rewarded for his patient care, with the veteran pacer emerging as a strong candidate for upcoming rich feature events, including the $450,000 WA Pacing Cup on November 8.
Voak has fond memories of the first time he drove Sangue Reale as a $71 outsider who won the Group 1 $125,000 Golden Nugget in November 2019 after finishing a nose second to Shockwave and then being awarded the race on protest.
Since then, injuries have kept Sangue Reale out of action for ten months in 2021, seven months in 2022 and for another ten months between October 2023 and August this year.
He had surgery to remove bone chips from his nearside hind fetlock more than three years ago and was retired in a paddock. It was then that trainer Giles Inwood offered a lifeline to the broken-down gelding and leased him when beach work and daily wading in the ocean at Naval Beach enabled him to resume racing, and he had ten starts for Inwood for two wins and three placings.
After that, Voak took over as Sangue Reale’s trainer, and Sangue Reale finished fifth behind Diego, Jumpingjackmac, Mighty Ronaldo and Magnificent Storm in the WA Pacing Cup in January 2023.
Then, later last year when Voak was preparing Sangue Reale for the WA Pacing Cup in November misfortune struck again when in a Free-For-All on October 6 a rival horse moved out beneath him and struck him on his near front leg.
“He was hit that hard that he pulled his shoe off and galloped,” said Voak. “This damaged his tendon; it was a trauma injury, and he missed the Pacing Cup, and we had to give him six months off to rehabilitate him before bringing him back into work.”
Voak said that some therapeutic shoeing when he first got the pacer had helped his suspect fetlock joint. “I used eclipse pads and built the foot up and got it square, and the hoof is perfect now,” he said.
Voak now has trained Sangue Reale for his past 21 starts for four wins and five placings, and the gelding now boasts a record of 80 starts for 14 wins, 27 placings and $332,450.
Sangue Reale began from the No. 1 barrier in Friday night’s event and he was the smartest to begin, leaving little option for rival reinsman Kyle Harper to take the sit behind him when the lead time was a slow 38sec. and the opening quarters were covered comfortably in 30.3sec. and 30sec.
Sangue Reale then dashed over the final 400m sections in 28.4sec. and 27.1sec. and won at a 1.56.2 rate by 4m from Talks Up A Storm, with Arma Einstein finishing a sound third after racing without cover in the middle stages and final circuit.
“Sangue Reale has come back in great order, and he wants to be out there, too,” said Voak. “Regarding the slow early pace to be brutally honest I think I gave the rest of the field too much respect.
“Sangue Reale is a lot stronger than he was during his previous preparation, so I’m now excited about him taking on some of the better horses when he can be driven with a sit.”
Voak said that Sangue Reale would now be set for the $100,000 James Brennan Memorial on October 11 and the $100,000 Stratton Cup a fortnight later, leading into the WA Pacing Cup.
“With a soft run, he’s capable of running in the top five in the big races,” said Voak.
Sangue Reale is by Art Major and is the third foal out of the Christian Cullen mare Christisimo, who raced 35 times for ten wins, six placings and $48,618. Christisimo won six times on Victorian country tracks before having seven starts in WA for four wins and a third placing early in 2011, when Kyle Harper drove her to victory at her final appearance, at Gloucester Park in April that year.