IMPORTED jumper Dormello Mo rounded off a start for the $100,000 Von Doussa Steeplechase at Oakbank on March 18 with an impressive steeplechase trial at Warrnambool on Friday.
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Dormello Mo defeated I’ll’ava’alf and Western Kingdom in the 2400-metre trial on his home track.
Fresh from a surprise last-start flat restricted race win at odds of $31, trainer Simon Ryan said the eight-year-old had thrived with last season’s jumping season under his belt.
“I think he’s got acclimatised to our conditions and our racing,” Ryan said. “Dormello Mo had big wraps on him when he arrived but he’s just taken a bit of time.
“He won three consecutive jumps races last year. Two of those were at a Casterton while the other was at Mount Gamiber. He’s rock-hard fit and I reckon he’ll run well in the Von Doussa.”
The former jumps-jockey-turned trainer said Dormello Mo would not run in this year’s Warrnambool Grand Annual Steeplechase.
“We’ll only run him in races up to 4000 metres,” Ryan said. “He would struggle to run the 5500 metres of the Grand Annual. There’s plenty of other steeplechase races up to 4000-metre that he’ll be competitive in over this jumps season.”
