By Isaac Murphy
Combine one of Queensland’s best trainers Tony Apap with one of Australia’s most astute breeding minds David Brasch, you expect excellence and that’s what Shorino has produced, becoming the second fastest dog over the Albion Park 600 metres clocking 34.51 last time out.
The current middle-distance star is just over two-years-old and his three runs at the trip couldn’t have been more impressive, second behind Jeff Crawford young star Radar Gunn, before consecutive wins over the trip the latest and eleven length romp putting him in elite company.
“He’s always had the motor, I’ve made it no secret that he’s the quickest dog I’ve ever had,” Apap said.
“He was very green and still is to some degree, he had a lot of bad luck early in his career, but he brought a lot of that on himself to playing up in the boxes which brought him undone.”
“His last few starts he’s settling a lot better and not playing up as bad in the boxes and I think with a bit of maturity he’ll get that under control.”
Box manners have been all that has come between Shorino and more success, since costing him a shot at winning the Vince Curry Series Apap has been doing plenty of work on his starts.”
“In the Vince Curry Series Final he stood them twelve lengths up the back and ran them down to two and a half, a bit of luck and maturity would have gone a long way,” Apap said.
“I’ve definitely put an emphasis on his box work at home, but you can only do so much with them, the real mental shift has to come from the dog and while he’s far from perfect it’s something a dog of his ability can overcome.”
Apap admitted when 34.5 came up on the clock last week it caught his eye, but with plenty in his favour and bigger things to come he was trying to keep a lid on the hype.
“He had a bit of luck last week, he drew the right box (1) and they left him alone early,” he said.
“Even though he had a lot of things in his favour to run the second fastest time ever over the distance at Albion gives you some buzz, there are some serious dogs that have run that trip and he’s right there at the top now.”
“I was definitely excited, but at the same time you want to keep a lid on it, some of the times I’ve seen him run on the slip at Ipswich you just don’t see, so I knew he had it in him.”
Confidence not time was the most pleasing aspect for Apap over Shorino’s last two runs and with immediate plans keeping his over the track and trip the track record could tumble.
“We’ll stick with a few six hundreds for now, he’s only just over two-years-old and with no big distance events on the horizon until next year we’ll be looking to have him ready for the 710 metres when it matters,” Apap said.
“I’m looking at taking him to Sandown for a time trial, as I said he’s done some amazing things on the trial track and giving him a look at a venue where he will hopefully race down the track is good too.”
“He’ll definitely come back to Albion, we were going to put him in this week, but thought he was probably right for a rest after stringing some consecutive six hundreds together.”