Ideal claim for McCall

Menangle trainer Darren McCall’s astute decision to ‘claim’ Ideal Situation from a race in Queensland last month has paid off with the six year old gelding winning four consecutive races since arriving in Sydney.

McCall claimed Ideal Situation out of a race at Albion Park for $6,000 with the son of American Ideal earning $27,000 since he arrived in New South Wales including a metropolitan race at Tabcorp Park Menangle on Saturday night.

“He’s been a very good claim, the horse was actually pointed out to me by an owner in my barn who had been watching him for a while,” McCall said.

“I went back through all of Ideal Situation’s replays, I always like to do my research when I’m claiming a horse.  You need to know the trainer, know the horse and everything about the horse.”

Having spent a number years in North America training horses, McCall had plenty of experience with claimers in the past.

“I dealt with a lot of claimers when I was in America and Canada, I use to claim horses a lot but you need to do your homework.  I thought Ideal Situation looked as though he lacked a little bit of high speed but I find that horses gain a little bit of that speed when they come to the big track at Menangle.

“So after all of the research I put the claim in but then the owner who put me onto the horse in the first place bailed out as he didn’t think he was worth the money.  Fortunately for me I took him, I wasn’t really worried because I thought he was the right horse and had the right criteria for me.”

When racing in Queensland Ideal Situation had been trained for his entire career by Shannon Price.

“The horse was born, raised and trained at the same place and I thought the change would be good for his attitude.  Importantly I knew he would have been taken well care of by his former trainer and he wasn’t over raced.

“I changed his training a little bit and he seemed to fit in really well here.  I changed his shoes and I think that has really had a big effect on him, I think that has helped a lot.”

After winning his metropolitan maiden on Saturday night, McCall confirmed Ideal Situation would miss this weekend and be set for the M0/M1 Rising Stars heats the following week.

“That will be his next target and hopefully he can get through to the final of that series.  His attitude has come good and he seems to be getting better every time I work him, but I don’t think I’ve found the bottom of him.”

Ideal Situation was the first leg of a winning double for McCall as his trotter King Kong Cooma took out the Mir Group Trotters Championship Final.

“It was a great weekend for us because we own King Kong Cooma as well.  He is a brilliant beginner from the stand and when I saw his main rivals had done something wrong I thought I would keep the speed solid up front.

“29 second quarters is about all he has go,t but I made the ones that had made a mistake chase and he runs about that speed every week. It turned out great because the prize money this time was better than normal.”