Sargent: 2500m to suit Bearings

[Wandering Eyes]

Queensland Oaks ambitions with Bearings didn’t eventuate but Sydney-based trainer John Sargent is hopeful the staying filly can land a winter city win at Flemington before he turns his attention to next season.

Sargent has Bearings (NZ) (Tarzino) set to contest Saturday’s Mahogany Challenge Final for three-year-olds and is convinced the step up to 2500m is what the daughter of Tarzino is looking for.

Bearings was sent to Melbourne to contest a heat of the series over 2000m at Flemington at her most recent start on June 21, when the filly came from last in the field of 14 to finish fifth with Dean Yendall aboard.

“I thought it was a good run, first time that way around,” Sargent said.

“She got back and the pace wasn’t overly strong, which didn’t suit her, but I thought she hit the line as good as anything in the race and she’s just crying out for that extra distance.”

Sargent said the Mahogany Challenge Series came onto the radar as an option for the filly after she missed gaining a start in last month’s Group 1 Queensland Oaks (2200m) on June 7.

Instead, Bearings raced in Sydney on that day, finishing fourth over 2000m, before attention turned to Melbourne.

“We were taking her to the Oaks in Queensland and she didn’t make the field, so we changed tack and thought there was a good staying race, similar distance, down in Melbourne,” Sargent said.

“So that’s why we changed and headed down there.”

Bearings’ two wins from nine career starts have come on NSW provincial tracks at Goulburn and Newcastle, and Sargent believes the three-year-old is on the improve.

“She’s just getting better with time,” he said.

“She’ll go out after this and I think she’ll be even better at four and five. She’s just a staying filly from New Zealand and has just taken time, that’s why she’s just hitting her straps now really.

“I’ve kept Dean Yendall on, he knows the filly now and there’s no need to change anything.”

Sargent said Bearings stayed in Victoria after her recent start and had done well since, so he is hopeful she will be able to settle closer on Saturday, somewhere midfield, depending on where she draws.

If Bearings can keep stepping up into her four-year-old season, a return to Melbourne at some time during the spring might be on the cards.

“It just depends how she matures, but I think she’ll be one of those black-type staying fillies that could get back down to Flemington, hopefully, and run in a Matriarch or something like that,” Sargent said, when discussing what type of level Bearings might be able to reach.

Bearings was bred by Mapperley Stud and purchased by Tricolours Racing for $140,000 from their Book 1 draft at the 2023 Karaka Yearling Sale.

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