A tip straight from the horse’s mouth

This tip is straight from the horse’s mouth - trainer Ray Green has solved his Beaudiene Western puzzle and the colt is primed to resume on a winning note at Auckland on Friday.

Green was pretty chuffed as he ungeared the three-year-old at Pukekohe last Saturday, moments after he dealt to some quality opposition in his 2050 metre workout.

But it wasn’t Beaudiene Western’s win over stablemate Lincoln Road and highly touted winning debutant Dream Major that told Green his horse was back to his best - the colt was a workout winner the previous week as well.

The big difference was the report from driver Andre Poutama who told Green that rather than locking on one rein, as he’s done for much of the last eight months, the horse steered beautifully.

And Green put that squarely down to some resourceful modifications he made to the horse’s bit, covering half of it with latex and leaving the left hand side bare so as not to exert any pressure on the colt’s mouth.

Beaudiene Western had a problem with his mouth long before he beat only one home in his last start, the Harness Jewels at Cambridge in June.

The colt, smart winner of a Young Guns heat in February, when parked for the last lap, developed a habit of locking on one rein so badly he nearly knocked over several runners early in one race.

And when Beaudiene Western started salivating all the time, Green and his vet did some further investigation.

“We poked round in his mouth and pulled out three little slithers of bone from his jaw.

“You wouldn’t know how it happened - maybe he was kicked as a foal - but it never seems to have completely healed.’’

Green covered half the horse’s bit with latex

X-rays last week failed to find any sign of a flare-up so Green played around with the horse’s bit, figuring if he could keep the bit off the lump and scar tissue which the operation left, it might remove the cause of irritation.

“That’s our job,’’ says Green. “We’re problem solvers, not trainers.

“He’s such a neat little horse, I didn’t want to race him last week when he still wasn’t quite right but hopefully we’ve got him now and we can do what we like with him.

“This horse is very tough and I think he’s up to winning a Group I race.

“Make Way (stablemate) nearly rolled them in the Jewels and this horse is better.

“There are a lot of good races for three-year-olds and we’ll target the Sires’ Stakes and derbies now.’’

Beaudiene Western certainly has the pedigree to win one of those classics for the eight people who took up shares in him through the Lincoln Farms partnership scheme.

He is a half brother to 22-race heroine Beaudiene Bad Babe, big winner Beaudiene Boaz, who was sold to Perth by Lincoln Farms after winning the Harness Jewels and has now banked $1.25 million frBeaudiene Western travelling strongly for driver Andre Poutama in his workoutom 25 wins, the tough pacer Guns N Roses (13 wins) and Beaudiene Beaufighta (8 wins).

Beaudiene Western didn’t miss many of the big two-year-old features last season and, while only seventh in the Sires’ Stakes Final at Addington in May, he was less than four lengths from Jessie Duke and Another Masterpiece and was credited with a faster last 800 metres than the first pair, clocking a sizzling 54.42.

With a rating of just 60, and three workouts under his belt, he looks well placed to string the wins together.