Glenn Stevenson admits it’s been tough to come down from the high of winning last month’s Launceston Cup with Asva and return to his busy life of training around 26 horses on his Wesley Vale property.
In the past few seasons, Stevenson has established himself among the top trainers in the state, regularly at or near the top of the premiership table and churning out big race winners.
Asva not only won the Launceston Cup but also gave Stevenson a three-peat of Devonport Cup winners, taking out the NW feature race in early January. Asva is now enjoying a well-earned break. He is likely to be aimed at the Geelong Cup in the spring; the Launceston Cup win earned him free entry into that race.
Stevenson will have a relatively quiet day at the Public Holiday meeting at his home track of Devonport on Monday, with only four runners for the day. And they come in the last two events on the program: last-start winner Agnete and Elegantly Written will tackle the (1350m) BM68, while Spring Bean and stable newcomer Lindrum will go around in the (1880m) BM64.
“He came to us in good nick. Old mate Jim Taylor, the ‘mayor’ of King Island, wanted him trained at the beach, so we got him, and he will run a good race,” Stevenson predicted.
Lindrum has had just one run for the stable, finishing in seventh position over 2100m in a BM64 on Launceston on Cup Day.
Stevenson also gives Spring Bean a chance in the same race.
“His last run was really good, 63kg with three off (for apprentice Kirra-Lee Lane), he will be thereabouts.”
Spring Bean has won six races, four of them on the Devonport synthetic track.
Stevenson is pleased with how the stable has been performing. He currently sits third on the premiership table with 30 winners at a healthy strike rate of 18.60% and almost a million dollars in prize money.
“We are winning Cups, we’ve won 2yo and 3yo races before, we are consistent, and that’s what we’ve got to be. Everyone shows up every day, it’s a battle to front up sometimes, but if you don’t get the winners, it would be tough to survive.”
Stevenson says he may wind his stable numbers back over winter, particularly with his number one jockey, Codi Jordan, contemplating taking a break to travel.
“She could be away three months or more. We are not taking on any new clients. We want to get our numbers down to about 16 just to make it a little easier for everyone, so they are not flat out all the time.”
It’s a seven-race card on Monday with the first at 13:29. All the action can be seen on Tasracing Live with pre- and post-race interviews.
