Outlaws Revenge living up to Balfour’s big opinion with Group 1 aims on horizon
The career-best form of Ryan Balfour’s sprinter Outlaws Revenge (Reward For Effort), a horse he hopes can one day deliver him a win in South Australia’s signature race The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m), coincides with the Adelaide trainer’s decision to downsize his stable.
Four-year-old Outlaws Revenge, who shoots for a hat-trick of stakes victories in Sunday’s Christmas Stakes (Listed, 1100m) at Caulfield, has shown immense talent since the time he won his maiden at Gawler 12 months ago and Balfour harbours Group 1 ambitions for the gelding.
But the Morphettville trainer is in no rush to get there, with the Christmas Stakes and possibly the Standish Handicap (Gr 3, 1200m) in Melbourne on the agenda.
Outlaws Revenge’s rich vein of form comes as no surprise to Balfour, who did not hide his opinion of the gelding earlier this year by purchasing her Palentino (Teofilo) half-sister for $370,000 at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale, the third highest-priced yearling of the sale.
“It is great to see his talent coming to the fore and furnishing. It’s a great feeling seeing him do what we thought he could do, but it’s also exciting to think that this time next year he is going to be a better horse,” Balfour told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“He’s just going to keep on progressing. We’ve been patient and we’re reaping the rewards, if we haven’t already.”
Outlaws Revenge, who was unplaced in two stakes races in Adelaide during the autumn, has won the City Of Marion Stakes (Listed, 1200m) and the SAJC Christmas Handicap (Listed, 1200m) at his past two starts after he was a beaten favourite first-up on November 6. The gelding boasts a career record of six wins from 11 starts, having won three of his first four starts as a three-year-old.
“I obviously hoped he would (win in the autumn), but he still wasn’t there. Because we’ve been so patient and later-maturing and that he’s so sound, all going well, he’s the kind of horse who will be around when he’s six, seven and eight,” he said.
“He’s just taken a while and I am very confident that we are nowhere near the bottom of him. When he broke the long-standing (1200-metre) track record at Morphettville of 1.08.20 seconds I think it was, he bucked, did things wrong (in the City Of Marion Stakes) and the other day he got held up for a run.
“He had to make a run up the inside without momentum, which is hard to do, and he still beat them.
“I know people will say, ‘it’s only Adelaide’ but it was Listed level and times don’t lie.”
The Standish Handicap, the third leg of Racing Victoria’s new sprint series, will be run at Flemington on January 15 and Balfour wants to test Outlaws Revenge down the straight course.
“We’ll be guided by how he goes on Sunday, but I’d love to try him up the straight. I’ve always had a good feeling about him up the straight,” he said.
“It’s going to be even better for him because I think he’s a horse who could run a strong 1400 metres and to win at 1200 metres up the straight, you sometimes need that style of horse, depending on how it’s run.
“It’s not often you have these conversations. We’re not going over there on Sunday with any arrogance, we’ll go with respect for the opposition, but I know if our boy gets his chance, he’ll be there when it counts.”
The Goodwood in May at Morphettville is tentatively on the cards should Outlaws Revenge maintain his run of form over the summer and into the autumn.
“Being from Adelaide, we just know that’s our premier race and it’s very close to the heart. My grandfather (Tom Neale) won it and dad (David Balfour) won it, so I would love to win it, but we also know that there’s other big sprint races in the autumn as well,” he said.
“I feel very privileged to be having these conversations. For now, we’ll work back from the autumn carnival.”
Balfour also has high hopes for Outlaws Revenge’s younger half-sister and he has no regrets about paying the significant sum for the Palentino filly, who like her sibling, was bred by Willow Grove Stud’s Ralph Satchell, who is also a part-owner in the Reward For Effort (Exceed And Excel) gelding.
Balfour paid $150,000 for Outlaws Revenge and more than double for the Palentino filly after out-lasing rival Adelaide trainers Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas in a spirited bidding duel.
“(The Palentino filly) was a dream to break in, she was probably the busiest filly to ever go through an Adelaide sale, so she got a very good education there,” Balfour said.
“I saw her up at Willow Grove – Outlaws has been up there for a little freshen up since (his last start) – and she looks spectacular.
“She’s had a prep with me off the breaker and we’re working on her being a three-year-old. She’s as big and strong as him, so we’re in no rush. We’re just thinking three-year-old and up really and anything before that is just a bonus.
“It’s about balancing that and being patient. As we did with him, hopefully we’ll see rewards.”
Balfour yesterday revealed he had reduced the number of horses he had in training from 50 to 35 to 40 and he believes it has made a difference to the stable’s results.
“At the moment, I am down-sizing, but we aren’t going without any winners, put it that way, because I’ve had more time to spend on the right horses,” the trainer said.
“I had 50 horses placed in five different stables, so you would be driving around all morning and it overcomplicates it, so we’re capping that to 40 and working back to 35 and, so far, things are going well.”
Prize-money increases, Balfour said, also makes South Australia an appealing place to race, even though the jurisdiction cannot compete, principally, with New South Wales and Victoria.
“I think prize-money in South Australia, and it is a credit to Racing SA and Nick Redin and the team, has never been this good,” he said.
“It is also a great place for people who have got horses racing interstate, particularly in the Sydney area, who really need to have a look at the prize-money on offer here and what their horses could do if some of those middle-rung horses were placed over here.”