Four winners in five days, including a double to one horse, plus the promising comeback of a previously retired mare, mean Sue Jaensch is officially on a roll.
The Naracoorte trainer is enjoying a purple patch of form, starting with Just Rolling’s win at Murray Bridge last Wednesday and finishing on Sunday with Out Proven’s easy victory at Bordertown.
In between, Alsvior racked up two wins in four days, backing up from a win over 1200m at Murray Bridge in a benchmark 58 race with an even-better success at Morphettville Parks in a benchmark 68 race over 1300m.
Adding icing to the cake, stablemate The Ant’s Pants – also backing up from Murray Bridge last Wednesday – ran a cracking race at Morphettville Parks, zooming home to finish third over 1300m.
“It’s a learning curve all the time, this training game,” Sue said.
“Each horse teaches you something different.”
Winners had been relatively scarce recently for the prolific South East trainer, making the latest run of success a welcome relief.
“We’ve gone from using the (Naracoorte) track to using our own track out the back here, because it’s been so wet,” Sue said.
“I thought I’d have to go back to driving in and out to the (Naracoorte) track all the time, but I’m glad it’s turned around.”
Sue admitted she was in two minds about backing up Alsvior, but said the four-year-old gelding had handled the racing superbly.
She said comeback mare The Ant’s Pants, a rising six-year-old, was thriving after having nearly two years off the scene due to injury.
“She was a bit ‘hairy’ when she first came into work (in 2018), education-wise she was taking a fair while,” she said.
“We got those three runs out of her, and at that time we thought ‘this horse is pretty good’.
“But we were going to the races one day with our horses on a three-horse float. We’ve got this horse called Looking Around... and he got his head over the division, and was grabbing hold of (The Ant’s Pants’) wither.
“She scrambled that badly that the hip wore straight down to bone, just about, but she also must have hit her tendon in that time.
“Of course it came up, we had it scanned and it was basically a hole from top to bottom. The owner said ‘I’ll take her home and give her away as a broodmare or something like that’, but he had no takers.
“Later on he rang up (about another horse) and I asked what he was doing with Ant’s. He said she was still sitting in the paddock and looking really good. I asked him if we wanted to get the vet up and get her leg scanned and see whether there’s anything there.”
History shows the scan came back clear, and The Ant’s Pants has made a successful return to the track, with another win seemingly around the corner.
“She’s got this scar on her hip but it doesn’t seem to affect her,” Sue said.
“I think she ran a super race in Adelaide. We were looking at 1400m rather than 1300m, and I’m thinking if it was 1300m on Wednesday and 1400m on Saturday we would’ve been right, but it was the other way around.”
The Jaensch stable’s run could continue at Murray Bridge this Saturday, when Sue saddles up Miss Mosh and Von Costa Glass.
Meanwhile in further good news, Sue said stable star Amberdi – who finished fourth in the 2020 TAB Classic (Sangster Stakes) – had recovered well from a recent serious setback and was improving every day in the stable.
