Phearson ready for racing return at Randwick after long layoff

Phearson, one of trainer Brad Widdup’s toughest horses, is set to race this weekend after a nearly four month layoff. The seven-year-old gelding will run in the $200,000 Show County Quality (1200m) on Saturday.  
 
The seven-year-old is a huge underdog at the betting sites with $41.00 odds to win, but if he runs well, he could be in for a big spring season with multiple Group 1 races potentially on the cards for the gelding. 

‘He’s a scallywag’ 

One of the reasons so many horse racing betting fans and experts have identified Phearson as a horse to watch this weekend is his reputation as an unpredictable racer. As his trainer Brad Widdup put it, Phearson is ‘a scallywag’. 
 
“He’s a horse with a lot of ability but he’s a scallywag,” Widdup said this week ahead of Phearson’s return.  
 
“For a seven-year-old, he has still got two-year-old habits, but he’s got a hell of a lot of ability and a great bunch of owners and we’ve had a lot of fun with him,” Widdup continued.  

Winning record 

While the betting odds have Phearson as an outsider to win the Show County Quality on Saturday, the gelding’s record speaks for itself.  
 
“He’s had 20 starts, six wins, six seconds and two thirds so he has been great for the stable and won a couple of Group Threes and they’re hard horses to get,” his trainer Widdup said.  
 
Phearson’s biggest win was in the Group 3 Liverpool City Cup (1300m) in March. He couldn’t sustain it though. The gelding finished 12th, 19th, and 10th in his next three races. He has not raced since May.  

Phearson targeting $1.5m race 

If all goes well for Phearson on Saturday, Brad Whiddup plans on running the seven-year-old in shorter races to prepare him for the $1.5 million Alan Brown Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill on October 12.  
 
“I will probably keep him to 1400m this time and see where we go,” Whiddup explained.   
 
That trainer added that the Alan Brown Stakes is not the only race on the cards for Phearson this spring. “You’ve got the Show Country then the Theo Marks and the Alan Brown, if he could get a go in that we’d have a look at it. The Hunter is there as well,” Whiddup also said.