Young trainer Angus Townley out to follow late master Robbie Laing lessons with Latin Lover

Lessons gleaned while working for the late Robbie Laing will be on show when Angus Townley gives a Royal Ascot winner his first start for three years at Sandown on Wednesday.

Pakenham trainer Angus Townley has spent many hours getting Latin Lover back to the races after two tendon injuries. Picture: Racing Photo

Lessons learned from the deeds of the late training genius Robbie Laing could form the base of an amazing win at Sandown on Wednesday.

Laing, who died suddenly last month, famously won the 2009 Grand Annual Steeplechase at Warrnambool with Sir Pentire after nursing the gelding through an injury-enforced absence of two years.

Young trainer Angus Townley has spent countless hours applying the lessons learned when working for Laing when getting former UK sprinter Latin Lover back to the races.

“I learned to train from Robbie Laing and he said to me, ‘if you’re going to rehab a tendon horse, make sure it’s at least a group horse’,” the Pakenham-based Townley said.

“I only need to get him (Latin Lover) to win over 1000m at Flemington. Robbie got his horse to win over 5000m and that’s amazing.

“I’ve got an interest in soft tissue injuries so I’m interested in getting them back to the races.”

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Latin Lover showed a dash of class when winning three of 11 starts in England, including beating 26 rivals in a Rating 105 sprint during the 2022 Royal Ascot carnival at his last start.

The sprinter was subsequently sold for 210,000 guineas (approx. $452,000) at a tried horse sale before he was sent to Hong Kong to continue his career.

However, the son of Caulfield Guineas winner Starspangledbanner never raced in Hong Kong before landing in Australia to be trained by Clinton McDonald.

But luck again deserted Latin Lover, leading to Townley taking over his training.

“When he was purchased, he went via Hong Kong and did a tendon over there,” Townley said.

“I believe he was rehabbed there before he came out here but he did his other tendon when he was at Clinton’s.

“When I got him a year ago, he’d had two bowed tendons.

“He was a very up in the air thing, he had sarcoids on his stomach, which is sort of like a cancer thing so we had to have those lasered off.”

Latin Lover was a winner over 26 rivals during the 2022 Royal Ascot carnival before injuries kept him off the track for more than three years. Picture: British Horseracing Authority

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Rehabilitating tendon injuries is a time consuming exercise, requiring enormous amounts of patience while horses slowly regain strength and fitness.

Townley said he has not given Latin Lover much work on the track, preferring lower impact methods to get the sprinter fit to resume in Wednesday’s MRC Membership Feel The Thrill Handicap (1000m).

“We rehabbed him and gave him plenty of time off,” Townley said.

“We ran him out in a seven-acre paddock with our mares for six months at one point.

“We brought him in, rehabbed him, water walked him and all that stuff but he’s never taken a backward step.

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“I pretty much hand-walked him at the track for over six weeks and had him in the pool and on the water walker, then we gave him another spell.

“We brought him back in but we’ve hardly worked this horse on the track.

“We just went the traditional way of training with lots of long, slow work like he would have had at Newmarket or wherever he was trained in England.

“We’ve given him two jumpouts and maybe three hard gallops.”

Latin Lover has won two jumpouts in the lead-up to his racing return, the last of which was in ground Townley described as “bottomless” at Pakenham on July 1.

The six-year-old is an $18 chance to score at his Australian debut. But Townley was unsure how his charge would perform at his first run for 1122 days.

“It’s been three years since he’s raced so he’s entitled to be a bit ring rusty first-up but I think he’ll still put in a nice performance,” Townley said.

“I’m expecting a big run on Wednesday but if he could go there and win, he’d be doing it on class alone, not fitness.

“Getting a metropolitan win with this horse would definitely be a feather in the cap.”

Originally published as Young trainer Angus Townley out to follow late master Robbie Laing lessons with Latin Lover