Country trained star on comeback trail

Country Victorian speedster Brallos Pass has started a rehabilitation program as connections eye off a comeback.

“He’s been off the scene now for nearly 14 months with a fetlock injury to his near side front leg,” trainer Mark Watson, of Kyabram, said.

“I just couldn’t get it right, so we put him out in the paddock. I’d go and check on him regularly and then recently he come up to me at the gate.

“The leg looked fine so after a chat with the owners Mal and Neil Lennie, we decided it was worth giving him another go.”

Watson said Brallos Pass, now an eight-year-old, was the best horse he’d trained.

“He’s been a bit special, and yes he’s been my best by a long way – last season we actually put him over a few mares,” he said.

“Once we decided to give him another try, I jogged him up for two weeks before he went across to Brett Bunfield’s place to do work in the water walker. He went over about a week ago, and he’ll stay there for as long as Brett thinks he needs to.” Watch him in the water walker here.

Brallos Pass (Major In Art-Miss Athens (Bettors Delight) has had 82 race starts for 18 wins and 31 placings for $308,000.

The pacer has taken Watson and his wife Michelle to Queensland, Sydney and Adelaide as well as meetings all over Victoria.

As a juvenile he won the South Australian Derby and a heat of the NSW Derby, along with a heat of the VicBred Super Series (3YO) and third in the final. The following season he was fourth in a G1 APG final and finished runner-up to Lazarus in the G1 Bonanza at Melton.

Brallos Pass won back-to-back Albury Commercial Club Pacers Cup in 2017 and 2018. He also won feature races at Melton, including the DNR Logistics Pace, and was successful at Cranbourne in the $18,000 BevMarks Sleep Pace.

Other country club victories included the 2019 TAB Pace at Wagga and the Greggs Electrical Ouyen Cup.

The Watsons, originally from Broken Hill, moved to Shepparton in 2002 when the late Kevin Abrahams offered Mark the role of private trainer at Meadowbrook Stud.

After a three-year stint, and with a young family, they decided to go out on their own and moved to Kyabram where Mark soon established himself as a highly regarded horse breaker.

“Years ago, I would do more than 20 youngsters each season for outsiders. These days I just tend to do them mainly for our ongoing clients-at the moment there’s a heap on their second preparation,” he said.

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink