Seven-year-old galloper Talbragar having just his 15th start at Sandown on Saturday
A late start to his career means despite being an eight-year-old in just a few months, Talbragar has only been to the races on 14 occasions.
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Returning last month in a hot form race at Caulfield, Talbragar will now tackle Saturday's Benchmark 84 (1000m) at Sandown Hillside where Sandhu hopes he can improve on an impressive second-up record.
'I was happy with his first-up run and thought he might have finished a bit closer with some luck,' Sandhu said.
'He got a little bit tight for room coming around the bend and there are a few other little bits and pieces that didn't quite go his way.
'He's only had a few second-up runs in his career but has won two of them so let's hope he can make it three on Saturday.'
Prancing Spirit gets a well-deserved win ✨
Luckless in previous starts, the @pstokesracing mare found the line first. pic.twitter.com/YK3XeREZvm
— Racing.com (@Racing) May 10, 2025
• Comeback star can give Cummings a Golden send-off
The Cranbourne-based conditioner initially wanted to tackle last Saturday's meeting at Flemington with Talbragar but a minor issue on race morning forced him to scratch.
'He came through that run in good order and was meant to go to the races to run last Saturday at Flemington but he had a minor hiccup on race morning,' Sandhu said.
'It meant we had to scratch him but it was nothing serious but we just needed to do what we needed to do.'
Sandhu also suggested punters read little into Talbragar's one-run spring campaign when he failed to fire in the Group 2 McEwen Stakes at The Valley.
'I just thought he came into the spring a little bit ordinary and I wasn't happy with the way he pulled up,' Sandhu said.
'There was no injury or anything, I just wasn't happy completely with the way he came through the run so I just looked after him, gave him a break and brought him back.'
Sandhu is the fourth trainer for Talbragar but he knows the horse as good as anyone having trained his younger brother, Lofty Strike.
Lofty Strike nearly took Sandhu to Group 1 heights on multiple occasions and while it's very unlikely Talbragar will do that, he arguably boasts the title of best-bred gelding racing on Saturday, being by super sire Snitzel and out of 2013 Golden Slipper winner Overreach.
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