Geall Eyes Easter Egg Comeback With Koblenz

MELBOURNE Cup winner Koblenz has been cleared to resume work with the Group 1 Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg firmly in trainer David Geall's sights.

The son of Fernando Bale and Up Hill Jill – both winners of the Golden Easter Egg – has been out of action since running second in a Free For All at Shepparton in December where it was later revealed he had fractured a metatarsal.  

"It probably goes back to The Phoenix," said Geall.

"He got turned sideways a bit at the first turn and galloped on at the 600m boxes. To his credit he got up and ran third and we thought he was alright.

“We went ahead to race at Shepparton (ahead of the tilt at the Paws Of Thunder), but he ran well below what we know he can do. Then we noticed he had some inflammation around the back foot and x-rays confirmed he'd cracked the metatarsal.

"He's been off for nearly seven weeks. We've had x-rays over the last five weeks – we've now had three x-rays – and we've finally got the OK now. It looks good so we'll start working him."

Heats of the Golden Easter Egg will be run on Saturday, 26 March, giving Geall five weeks to have his charge ready to take on the country's best sprinters.

Geall said that barring any setbacks, five weeks will be enough time to properly prepare and he has already roughed out his path towards the gruelling three-week series.

"He'll work for probably seven days – just free galloping – and then step him up towards the end of that. We'll give him a trial over the short somewhere then go from there,” Geall said.

G1 TAB #MelbourneCup Final: Early pace won the day with KOBLENZ (B3) exploding from the boxes before hanging on to deliver the Geall family their second Melbourne Cup in four years.

? KOBLENZ (D Geall)
? LALA KIWI (A Dailly)
? KINSON BALE (C Grenfell)https://t.co/BAiOi1Zuc6 pic.twitter.com/CNcVv0ZgOm

— WatchDog Racing (@WatchDogRacing) November 26, 2021

"If he stands up as good as we think he will, he'll probably have one start on a one bend track and the plan will be to go to Wentworth Park. He'll have to have a run there – there's no use going to the Easter Egg heats without a run (at the track) so we will give him a race or a trial at Wentworth Park."

Koblenz is a winner of 26 of his 41 careers starts and has earned connections over $791,855 in prize money.

A win in the Golden Easter Egg would see Koblenz become the third greyhound to complete the Melbourne Cup-Egg double and take Koblenz past $1,000,000 in earnings, a feat just eight other greyhounds have achieved.

And Geall is no stranger to Golden Easter Egg success either, winning the race in 2018 with Koblenz's dam Up Hill Jill, which defeated Striker Light in one of the most epic group 1 contests you'll see.