CHEVALIER’S RANDWICK TARGET WITH A HORSE WITH GRUNT
HE’S Got Grunt’s home track triumph today has convinced Hawkesbury trainer Marc Chevalier to head to town with him.
Ridden by Tyler Schiller, He’s Got Grunt ($7.50) ran up to his name by wearing down Ouragan ($4.80) to take the Book Your Christmas Raceday Now Midway Class 1 Handicap (1600m).
“Tyler got off him and said he is a potential stayer, so there is a suitable race at Royal Randwick on Melbourne Cup and Big Dance day (November 3),” Chevalier said this evening.
“It’s a Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap over 1800m.
“I won’t start him again before then, but he’ll be fit to run the distance and it will give some of his owners the opportunity to see him race that day.
“He’s Got Grunt is a funny horse in that he doesn’t do a lot in morning trackwork, so you never really know what to expect on raceday.
“Hopefully from our point of view Tyler doesn’t get a Melbourne Cup ride so that he can stay on him at Randwick.”
Chevalier is building a good partnership with Blueblood Thoroughbreds, in whose colours He’s Got Grunt races.
“They gave me one or two horses to pre-train at first, then started to give me a horse or two to train,” he said.
“Another of their horses arrived at the stable today, so now I have five for them.
“It’s great to be training for one of the well-known syndicators.”
He’s Got Grunt, whose dual Group 2 winning sire Grunt (2018 Australian Guineas and Makybe Dive Stakes – both 1600m at Flemington) - was a $60,000 purchase for Blueblood as a 2023 weanling.
Bu he is no stranger to his trainer.
“I pre-trained him a couple of times before eventually being given him to train,” Chevalier said.
He’s Got Grunt won a Hawkesbury 3YO Maiden (1400m) on June 23 (when also ridden by Schiller) first-up, and at his only other run after a break ran fourth to fellow Hawkesbury trainer Blake Ryan’s Green Winter at Kembla Grange on September 12, also over 1400m.
Newcastle trainer Nathan Doyle’s Switch On was the $1.50 hotpot in He’s Got Grunt’s race. but was eased out of the race in the straight by his rider Ash Morgan, and was found to have cardiac arrhythmia.
Wyong trainer Tracey Bartley also was in the winning list at Hawkesbury.
He scored in the Provjncial Maiden Plate (1100m) with Stromatolite (Alysha Collett) at $4.20.
Bartley’s Sandbar three-year-old was having only his second start after being placed on debut at Newcastle on September 19 to Excelluna, who ran third in the final race at Hawkesbury today.
Claire Lever posted her first success of the season at Orange today, and in doing so became the 12th Hawkesbury trainer to enter the winning list since August 1.
Lever’s $2.80 favorite Yes Siree won a nail-biting three-way finish to the Benchmark 66 Handicap (1600m).
Urged on by Winona Costin, Yes Siree snuck home from a late-finishing Naval Officer ($5.50) and Tavijewel ($18), who made a bold bid for victory.
Yes Siree is a five-year-old by Yes Yes Yes, and has now won three of his 13 starts.
STORY JOHN CURTIS, OCTOBER 8, 2026 - PICS BRADLEY PHOTOS
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