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By Geoff Newling

Bob's A Dazzler could return to Gunnedah on Tuesday hoping to break a local drought at Riverside in the feature MPC Earthmoving Summer Cup (1600m).

The Justin Blanch-trained eight-year-old gelding has had three runs at Riverside but is yet to place on the roomy layout.

Two starts back, his first run back from a spell, he finished ninth to Gavin Groth’s About Time and Rod Northam’s Hooge in a 1300m benchmark 65 at Gunnedah. He drops a half kilo for that effort and goes up 300m in a race that also includes those two horses again.

Last time out Bob’s A Dazzler finished 10th to George Woodward’s Enough in the 1400m Inverell Cup. He was only beaten 5.56 lengths in that New Year’s day feature.

Justin Blanch said whether his gelding starts would be discussed by him and the gelding’s owners tonight: “It’s still up in the air whether he runs,” Justin Blanch said today.
“He’s got a bit of weight still (61kg) but he needs this run to top him off but I expect him to run well if he does start.”

The Armidale trainer describes the gelding, who has won seven of his 45 starts, as a “late maturer”.

“He’s taken a little time to come around,” he said. “He started racing up in North Queensland, then went to Victoria. Must have had a few problems but I’ve had no worries with him.”

The horse has won six races for Blanch since arriving at his Armidale stable, with wins at Muswellbrook, Port Macquarie and Coonamble as well as three wins at Tamworth.

“He seems to like Tamworth,” he said of a track where he won last year’s Mornington Prelude over the 2100m and then returned to run third Mornington itself.

Justin said Bob’s A Dazzler likes the firmer going and reports of a “perfect” Riverside track gladden his thinking and may play a big part in the gelding starting in the Summer Cup: “He’s also getting up to his distance,” he said of the 1600m Cup.

Tuesday’s MPC Earthmoving Summer Cup is one of eight races, the first jumping at 1.15pm. The track was rated a Good 4 today with the running rails out a metre from the 1000m to the 850m on raceday.

View the final fields with full form & race replays for Gunnedah here