Tiger Legend could be the most traveled horse racing event in Australia on Saturday.
In the span of 18 career starts, the gelding has traveled from Brisbane to Sydney and then to Hong Kong for major owner Bon Ho.
However, after just two starts at Sha Tin, Tiger legend returned to Australia where he was bought by the famous bush trainer Johannes Manzelmannbased in Mackay.
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Since then he has traveled the length of Queensland, going to Gladstone in October last year before making the journey far north at Cooktown, where he was defeated at non-TAB level, and then traveling south to Rockhampton and Toowoomba and back to Rockhampton. , where he scored two consecutive victories.
Manzelmann has Tiger Legend back on the truck and once again makes the trip from Mackay to south-east Queensland, where he will compete in the $160,000 Sunshine Coast Cup.
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A Group 3 Vo Rogue Plate winner for Tony Gollan in 2022, Manzelmann wants to get Tiger Legend (formerly Tiger Heart) back to its former glory and said the enormous journey has not affected his faith in the horse.
“He’s covered a few miles,” Manzelmann laughed.
“It was at one of the online auctions and went for $35,000.
“He was easy to deal with, he won a few races and is now at the front.
“The draw (barrier one) won’t hurt him on Saturday, that’s for sure.”
“He won a Group 3, so he was at this level before. Whether that is still the case remains to be seen, but he is doing well at the moment.”
While a good defeat in Cooktown, 2000km from Caloundra, is hardly ideal form for the Listed Sunshine Coast Cup, Manzelmann said there was a simple explanation for the defeat.
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“It was too short for him at Cooktown and the little tight track wasn’t good for him. The horses running on those tight tracks seem to be running around there very fast,” he said.
“He’s on the back of me now, he came to Rockhampton on Thursday and Sunshine Coast on Friday.
Manzelmann, a great traveler himself, has logged the miles and says the trip to the Sunshine Coast is light work compared to what he has done in the past.
“There’s been quite a few, we’ve driven from Cooktown to Mt Isa to Gold Coast, Toowoomba, we’ve been to quite a few places.
“It’s nice if we can bring a horse that is competitive to town.”
Tiger Legend gets a $34 shot in the Sunshine Coast Cup on Saturday.
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