'Snipped' Caldra leaves Kirk pondering next move
Published: 10/09/2006 (Sport) by Graham Dench
SYLVESTER KIRK has been left wondering if he ought to have been more patient with Caldra, who smashed the juvenile course record when a stylish winner of the Sporting Index Stardom Stakes but is ineligible for next year's Classics, having been gelded.
Caldra was an expensive failure in maidens on his first two starts, and while his debut defeat at Goodwood could be excused because of soft ground, his trainer felt he wasn't really trying at Folkestone next time and had him cut.
By an ironic twist, the operation has made a man of him, because Caldra won a maiden on his return and finished a fine second in the Solario Stakes at Sandown. And here he came from behind under a confident ride from George Baker to beat Big Robert, another decent prospect, by a length and a quarter.
In all probability Caldra would not have made such strides had he been left intact, but Kirk is bound to question himself over it, especially as opportunities for Caldra at the highest level are now severely restricted.
After the gelding had come home in a time that eclipsed by almost a second the course record set by Rimrod in the corresponding race in 2002, Kirk said: "I cut his balls off and now I don't know what to do with him. We thought he was a real nice horse, but he let me down the first two runs. His whole attitude has changed since he had the snip, but there's no fancy stuff for him now we've taken his credentials away.
"He could go for the big Redcar race, which is a massive pot but back to six furlongs, or there's the Horris Hill or the Autumn Stakes. We've even put him in the sales because he'd been castrated."