Icksta

Icksta is nearly ready to come back into work and will return to the stables next weekend. He has been having a great time in the paddock, putting on weight and filling out into his frame.

Icksta has been eating everything since his third place run at Moruya on Sunday but when he went for a canter on Wednesday morning, he was a bit sore in his off front shin. We will turn him out to the paddock to give him time to fully recover and resume his training in approximately eight weeks.

We are very pleased with how he has come along since arriving at our stables and we think the break will give him time to grow and mature.

Icksta had his final hit out on Tuesday morning (video above) as he heads towards the Moruya races on Sunday.  He worked with Instruments and they ran up the final two furlongs in:

12.39, 11.76

His work is improving each gallop and we are looking forward to him racing on the weekend. We have taken the blinkers off him for Sunday. The fields will be published on Thursday morning.

Icksta is coming along well this week with another two gallops at trackwork. The video above is his gallop on Tuesday morning with Instruments (he is on the outside in yellow). He is eating everything and is starting to come out of his shell, playing with his neighbours and even acting tough at feed time. We have him living next to Malachi Crunch now who likes to interact with his neighbours a lot so Icksta is having plenty of fun with him.

Nominations for Moruya will be released on Tuesday morning.

Icksta had his first gallop at Moruya this morning. He worked with No Emotion and travelled well. The video above is his 3/4 pace on Tuesday morning (he is on the inside in yellow). Each time he does fast work on the grass track he is picking up the bit and travelling better. He is still learning to attack the line and only goes as fast as he is asked to at this stage but he is balanced and tractable and his lovely nature makes him very obliging.

We are still aiming to race him at Moruya on the 18th of August.

We were delighted to welcome Icksta to the stables this week. He has settled in great and is very relaxed in his new environment, especially for a two year old. He has been eating everything and has happily worked on the track each morning. He did some 3/4 pace on the grass this morning (Saturday) and he was very professional. The video above is his first morning cantering and below is him coming off the track the same day.

At this stage, we will aim to race him at Moruya on the 18th of August over 1300m.