After finishing a poor 6th on debut in February, trainer Darren Little could be forgiven for thinking Kevinsfort Romeo would struggle to make even the lowest grade at Newcastle. After winning a 2 dog trial in March, going sub-30 for the first time in the process, Romeo tasted victory for the first time, winning a handicap out of Trap 2. After 3 more handicap races, he found himself in an A7 and hasn’t looked back since.
April witnessed a 30 spot improvement for the Burgess Bucks x Kevinsfort Tiger July ’22 pup as he went back to back, first in A7 and then in A6.
On the 1st May, Romeo found a further 34 spots to win an A5 at a starting price of 5/1, finishing ahead of Footfield Rosie, who has a 25% strike rate in the grade, and the favourite, grade dropper, Canny Adelaide.
On the 8th May, Romeo made it 5-in-a-row with a 3 1/2 length rout of an A4 field. After recording an incredible 4.54 split, Darren Little’s pup made all to record his fastest time to date: 28.95.
A double grade jump was enough to force an end to his winning run. Despite a 4.56 split on the 18th May, Romeo could not hold off the classy Droopy’s Sydney bitch, Slingshot Broxi, on the 3rd bend.
Romeo’s latest outing was a sharper test over 290m in Open company on 23rd May, again at Newcastle. Despite putting it up to the eventual winner, Slingshot Ali, he ran a little wide and was unable to make a dent on the run-in, finishing 2nd in 17.20 (calc.) It will be interesting to see where he runs next and in what grade.
