Ex-fisherman Bruno Micalizzi on a winner with Malaguerra

LOBSTER is the ultimate indulgence for many diners, so imagine having a tonne of it on board a trawler heading home from a day at sea.

Bruno Micalizzi celebrates Malaguerra’s success in the BTC Cup,

LOBSTER is the ultimate indulgence for many diners, so imagine having a tonne of it on board a trawler heading home from a day at sea.

Western Australian fisherman-turned-racehorse owner Bruno Micalizzi has been in that place a few times and reckons he can describe the feeling.

“There are a lot of similarities between fishing and racing,” Micalizzi says. “If you got a tonne of lobster in a day it was quite rare, and we did it a few times.

“It’s like winning a Group 1. To experience a Group 1 win is something I will never forget as long as I live.’’

Micalizzi, who no longer fishes due to injuries from “a couple of car crashes’’, got to experience the Group 1 feeling with the first horse he owned, when Malaguerra won last month’s BTC Cup.

He is hoping to double the euphoria in Saturday’s Stradbroke Handicap.

Micalizzi’s dalliance with racing came about as a result of his personal struggles and an almost accidental discovery that horses had a way of taking him to a better place.

“I was going through a bit of a rough patch,’’ Micalizzi said. “One day I found myself out at the Perth horse sales.

“I didn’t buy anything, but I walked around with a catalogue all day long and just looked at horses. When I came home, it was the calmest I’ve been in my whole life.

“In a time of adversity it was funny to come across something like that.’’

That made up Micalizzi’s mind to buy a horse and he phoned Leonard Russo, of Bluegrass Bloodstock, who directed him to the Inglis VOBIS sale in Melbourne.

Malaguerra, left, will line up in the Stradbroke on Saturday.

“He said sometimes you can find a jewel in among all those horses, and we did,” he said of Malaguerra, a $32,000 purchase.

Malaguerra started his career with Wez Hunter before being transferred to Lee Freedman, who convinced Micalizzi to make the ultimate gear change.

“Lee talked to me one day about the benefits of gelding him,” he said. “I reckon if it was someone else who told me that, I wouldn’t have listened, we wouldn’t have gelded him and we wouldn’t be here today. Ever since we did that, we haven’t looked back.

“It’s been a crazy ride. It began in Melbourne Cup week and it hasn’t stopped. I still can’t believe we won the BTC Cup. I’m still pinching myself.”

Originally published as Ex-fisherman Bruno Micalizzi on a winner with Malaguerra