Is Underwood’s result an important lesson? | RACING.COM

While Buckaroo’s Underwood Stakes win wasn’t the biggest surprise of the spring, the manner of his result was impressive considering he had won just his first race in Australia in his previous start.

But while it took him eight races to achieve his great success Down Under, including two for his former trainer Joseph O’Brien at the end of last year, Chris Waller’s gelding has only had one real race to compete in since heading south.

And after a consistent performance in the inaugural Group 1 Winx Stakes, he has now won the G2 at Chelmsford and G1 at Underwood, doubling his career prize money and improving his prospects for some of the later spring races.

The sudden improvement is a reminder that horses need time to acclimatise and professional punter Kingsley ‘Kingzone’ Bartholomew spoke about Dot Com and the Cave Mondays about how this might also be related to Place Du Carrousel, who disappointed in the Underwood, finishing eighth, six lengths behind Buckaroo.

For example, Fawkner Park won his first four starts in Australia up to benchmark 78 level, but then took another 10 months to win at stakes level.

On his local debut in the 2022 Melbourne Cup, Without A Fight finished 13th but returned after a six-and-a-half month break to win four of his next five matches, including the Cup double.

“From a form point of view, it was interesting that Buckaroo had not won a race in Australia for 12 months since arriving from Britain,” he said.

“Now he’s brought two together. Place Du Carrousel, who looks like a beautiful horse, has been here for six months and hasn’t won a race here yet.

“So sometimes it takes a while for the horses from overseas to get going and acclimatise.

“I don’t have the statistics, but I would like to know how you bet on these overseas horses in terms of preparation – first, second and third preparation.

“Because sometimes we forget that these horses come from overseas, like Fawkner Park.”

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