Lindsay Park’s best horse Mr Brightside (NZ) (Bullbars) is back in work and this spring will closely follow the blue-print of the extraordinary 1990 spring campaign of former stable star Better Loosen Up (Loosen Up).
Better Loosen Up was named the 1990-91 Horse of the Year in Australia following a remarkable of seven straight wins that spring in races of the ilk of the Cox Plate and Mackinnon Stakes before the horse landed his biggest blow in the 1990 Japan Cup.
Co-trainer J.D. Hayes said this week that the Doncaster Handicap winner could attempt to mirror Better Loosen Up’s spring campaign right through to the Japan Cup with a Caulfield Cup run the only possible change to the campaign that launched Better Loosen Up’s career.
‘’He’ll be kicking off in the P.B. Lawrence and then going to the Feehan and then we’ll reassess him from there, but he could following a similar path to Better Loosen Up,’’ Hayes said.
‘’Then it’s the Underwood or the Turnbull and then its either Caulfield Cup or Cox Plate.
‘’He (Better Loosen Up) took that avenue to the Cox Plate but the Caulfield Cup could be on the agenda for Mr Brightside.
‘’He’s just such a nice horse with so many options so we want to crawl before we can walk so we’ll see how he goes at his first two runs before we really plot the path.
‘’He’s building up beautifully and we couldn’t be happier with him.’’
It was 32 years ago that Better Loosen Up began his charge to greatness in the spring of 1990. He won seven races across the spring and early autumn of that season, culminating in his 5.5 length domination of the Australian Cup over Vo Rogue (Ivor Prince).
He went straight to Sydney after that great victory but injured himself in trackwork and was forced to spend a year on a sidelines with a suspensory injury.
He would never regain his earlier form, going winless for the final 12 starts of his career.
BETTER LOOSEN UP’S 1990 SPRING
– 4th G2 Liston (P B Lawrence) Stakes (1400m) at Sandown
– 1st G2 Feehan Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley
– 1st G2 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington
– 1st G1 Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley
– 1st G1 Mackinnon Stakes (2000m) at Flemington
– 1st G1 Japan Cup (2400m) at Tokyo’s Fuchu Racecourse
