He’s big and beautiful and it looks like the patient approach might be about to pay off for this talented I Am Invincible four year-old who won on debut at Gosford on Friday.
Trained by Bryce Heys, Banjora was gelded and given time to mature with his first ever barrier trial coming in July followed by his second at the start of August when he won a heat at Warwick Farm with Zac Lloyd in the saddle.
Lloyd was keen to stick with Banjora for his debut in the 1100m maiden and was rewarded when the gelding packed too much of a punch for race favourite Extractor, who was stakes placed last season at two. Banjora kicked on strongly to win by three-quarters of a length.
“He has always been showing us a lot, but we have had to be extra patient with him,” said Bryce Heys.
“We thought he'd run pretty well today, but I was still was a little bit nervous about bringing a big horse like him to Gosford, just with programming and the weather, we were of forced to kick him off here today and it was good.”
A $400,000 Inglis Easter purchase for Ellerslie Lodge Racing Stables / B Heys from the Lustre Lodge draft, Banjora is the second winner from well bred O’Reilly mare Veravarti (NZ), a winning half-sister to Group I winner Sharvasti and Group winners Shastri and Bhandara.
It’s a quality Kiwi Black Type family noted for it’s quality sprinter milers and Banjora certainly fits the profile of a horse that will only get better as he steps up a little in trip.
“He’s a very big horse, so I just wanted to let him fill into himself. He was always showing something and we could have got pretty itchy early on, but I knew when we bought him he was just such a big horse that we were probably going to have to geld him,” Heys added.
“He's a real quality physical and hopefully everyone in the team can stay patient and he'll repay them.”
