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By Ray Hickson

The reset button has been pushed on promising galloper Engine Room after a shock failure a month ago and trainer Bryce Heys has the fingers crossed he’ll return to his best at Randwick on Saturday.

Trainer Bryce Heys (Pic: Steve Hart)

The three-year-old wanted to hang and tailed out some 11 lengths behind the winner when chasing a hat-trick at Gosford on May 10 and left Heys wondering what happened.

Heys said no health reasons could be found for the failure so he’s happy to press on to the Midway Handicap (1500m) and see if he can get back on track.

“Went back to the trials three days later and got his ticket back to go again and it was a matter of resetting,’’ Heys said.

“We gave him the time we normally would to get through a run. But post-Gosford we thought we might be in a different spot to where we are now.

“The horse has come home and been fine, that’s why I wanted to get the trial out of the way and get him ready to go back to the races again.”

Engine Room, $5 with TAB on Friday, went into the Gosford race, won by Enter The Dragon, as favourite on the back of two impressive midweek wins so there was a level of expectation that he’d take that next step.

After landing in a good position early he found himself three wide and rolling forward down the back straight then ran off the track and was basically eased down.

Heys said there’s no indication from the gelding that such a thing will happen again but naturally it’s up to Engine Room to prove he’s put it behind him.

“We’re in a spot now where we want to see him do a couple of things right to give himself a chance to be competitive again,’’ he said.

“You’re always a bit nervous until you see that again. I want to see him get around and get his chance.

“I’m happy with the draw and happy to see what will transpire. He’s in really good nick to be able to run competitively.

“Regardless of what went wrong, until you go through the process of presenting them again and getting them to run where your expectation is you never know because of the experience they’ve had.”

Stablemate King Ratel has a different story to tell as he makes his return to the track in the Asahi Super Dry Handicap (1400m) having not raced since February 2023.

Now an eight-year-old, Heys said he’s had the extended break largely due to a leg injury but he’s particularly happy with how he’s coming up.

“We gave the horse time away for 12 months and started again,’’ he said.

“He’s an athletic horse so there was never any hesitation about keeping the horse sound and getting him back to race competitively.

“He’s a handy horse which we are probably not going to see the best of now given he had a setback but if we can keep him going the way he is he will get back at least where he performed last time.”

Engine Room's win at Kensington on April 25

Naturally expectations are low for his first-up assignment but Heys said 1400m suits at this stage of the preparation.

“He’ll need the run but he is bouncing around and I’d keep an eye on him for sure,’’ he said.

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Randwick meeting