Trainer Gavin Bedggood on Caulfield, Morphettville weather watch for comeback galloper Degraves

After more than three years on the sidelines, trainer Gavin Bedggood is set to unleash Degraves this weekend.

Degraves (navy and white) won the 2019 David Bourke at Flemington. Picture: Brett Holburt/Racing Photos via Getty Images

Trainer Gavin Bedggood has worked wonders with recycled runners but Degraves could go to the top of the stable honour roll after more than 1000 days in obscurity.

Degraves is set to race on Saturday at either Caulfield or Morphettville on the Parks circuit, whichever is wetter.

Caulfield was rated a good (4) on Wednesday while Morphettville Parks was posted as a soft (7) surface. Up to 10mm of rain is predicted in Adelaide on Saturday.

Degraves, a $90,000 online purchase in 2022, has since had multiple infections and arthroscopic surgery on both knees.

“I don’t want to talk too soon, but if he could get back to the races and race successfully it would probably be my biggest day on the track,” Bedggood said.

“It is pretty rewarding to get him back to the races and even better if he can get back into the winner’s stall because (the owners) have been very patient and let me do my job.”

Bedggood has enjoyed metropolitan and stakes success with multiple tried horses past, including original flag-bearer No Effort, Keats, Mornington Glory and current star Just Folk.

Degraves is an acceptor in a 1440m open handicap at Caulfield and 1550m Benchmark 82 at Morphettville.

The seven-year-old gelding, a Group 3 winner in Ireland in 2019 and victorious in two of three Australian starts, has impressed his trainer with three recent Cranbourne jumpouts performances.

“He’s ticked every box on the way through and got a green light to resume,” Bedggood said.

“He’s got good ability and he doesn’t look to have lost too much, going off his trials and track work. Hopefully we can get him back to what he was.”

Degraves return to the races has been a slow process caused by a series of problems and setbacks.

“He’s got a list as long as your arm,” Bedggood said.

“He had to have his sinuses drained then he had an infected tooth that had been infected for a long time and was pushing on his airways.

“It was restricting the amount of air he got, so that had to be extracted.

“He went in and got scintigraphy done, he had an arthroscope on both knees and had them cleaned up.

“He was probably ready to go six months ago over the spring but the tracks were too dry for him, so we elected to put him out and save him for these winter months.”

The rare molar tooth complaint stumped Bedggood for quite some time.

“First one I’ve heard of and the only way we found out about it is he had a discharge all the time and we had him on a lot of different antibiotics and it wasn’t doing the job so we did a head x-ray on him,” Bedggood said.

“We then sent him in for a CT and the scan showed the root of the tooth was very infected so it had to come out.”

An ex-Lloyd Williams-owned galloper, Degraves, a son of Camelot, had Northern Hemisphere form behind Cox Plate runner-up Armory and fellow Irish exports Delphi and Numerian, both Group 2 winners in Australia.

Bedggood has Miss Icelandic, having her first start for the stable, and Stageman slated to run at Caulfield on Saturday, while Squad and Fly On Bye head to Adelaide to capitalise on what’s expected to be a wet track.