When Burning The Clock stormed past his competitors to claim victory in the Massey Ferguson BM58 Handicap at Ballarat on Friday it was the culmination of a crazy 48 hours for trainer Ivan Lister.
As rain pelted down on northern Victoria the meet was moved from Tatura, a mere 15 minutes from his Ardmona base, to the synthetic track at Ballarat.
A journey which would take Lister and his crew four hours due to weather and traffic, they headed west unsure what to expect and how their horse would adapt to the change in track surface.
Throw in the fact he would be carrying 62kg, the most of any horse in the field, and you would have forgiven Burning The Clock if he didn’t produce his best performance.
But for Lister and all connections of the seven-year-old gelding, what they saw was a run full of character and grit, as he overcame a sluggish start to work his way into the race and eventually claim victory.
Burning The Clock’s second victory as part of the Lister stable, he detailed what was a frantic lead up to the triumph.
“With all the rain around at the moment, I think they’ve moved nine meetings from north east Victoria in the past three months, the meeting was transferred from Tatura to Ballarat which presented as a bit of a challenge for us,” Lister said.
“But we just thought it was a winnable race, so over we went, there was a bit of a hiccup on the freeway, so we waited in traffic for about four hours.
“In the end, he handled it all really well and produced a great run for us.”
Despite the setbacks, he entered the race a $2.80 favourite after winning his last start at Echuca a month earlier and showing great promise at the 1000m distance.
Following a host of scratchings, the field was whittled down to seven at the jump, where the Lister runner would be hit with more adversity.
Coming out of barrier four, he would slightly miss the start, resulting in him being tangled up at the back of the field through the early stages.
Under pressure, jockey Neil Farley did not panic, slowly working his way back into the race by finding clear air on the outside.
Entering the straight in fifth spot, he was then given the opportunity to truly let loose, showing a turn of foot his competitors couldn’t find as he romped to the lead in the final 100m and took out the race by 2.25 lengths.
Lister praised the professionalism showed by horse and jockey, as they overcame adversity to come away with the desired result.
“If you watch it closely he got a little bit interfered with at the start, another horse came across him and that set him back a bit,” he said.
“Ideally we would have loved to have been a little bit further forward, but it ended up being we had to settle at the back which threw the plan out a bit.
“But once he got going he really showed what he can do and it was a great ride by the jockey Neil Farley not to panic after missing the start.
“All connections are just thrilled with the result and the character the horse showed.”
As a result of the victory, Burning The Clock’s rating has been bumped up to 66, making it harder for Lister to find suitable country races for him.
Looking ahead, he said a race in Melbourne could be on the cards in the not too distant future.
“Being bumped up it is going to be hard to find a race for him now, meaning we will have to look into a start in Melbourne,” he said.
“We know the ability that he’s got and are excited for the future, Melbourne is certainly a possibility soon, and with spring carnival coming up it will be very tough competition.
“I’ll try to pick something out for him somehow.”