3 minute read

Last-start winner El Disparo will make his next appearance in Victoria.

Where and when has yet to be confirmed, but the in-form five-year-old looms as the first runner across the Tasman for Mark Brooks, who has brought forward his departure date to Australia.

“The boxes they are building for us at Ballarat won’t be ready until July, but we’re probably going to be going over in early May and rent some boxes nearby,” the Cambridge trainer said.

“We’ll be taking 10 or 12 over then with another six to eight to come over a bit later on.”

The first draft will include El Disparo, who was a runaway winner in Rating 75 company at Tauranga on Saturday.

“He hadn’t had a lot of luck in his runs before then and I’ve always liked him,” Brooks said.

“He’ll have his next start in Australia, I’m not sure just where yet, and eventually he’ll go jumping. But while his form warrants it, he’ll stay on the flat.”

El Disparo is raced by his breeders Frank and Faye Drummond, who stand the gelding’s sire El Hermano at their Waikato property, Cheval Stud.

They also race the El Hermano’s multiple-winning sons El Luchador and El Fernando, who will be in the travelling party to Ballarat.

A highlight of Brooks’ training career was a Great Northern Steeplechase victory with Jack Romanov and the 2015 Ellerslie winner is another who could be on the move.

“Him and Joking will run in the McGregor Grant Steeples and then we’ll play it by ear, they could go over as well along with Apprehend – I’ll be needing plenty of ammo over there,” Brooks said.