HORSE RACING
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The long-awaited return of Listed-winning gelding Fire Thunderbolt will be delayed another week or two as the five-year-old continues his recovery from a series of niggling issues.
The Diane Poidevin-Laine trained five-year-old had been nominated to run in the Group 2 Premiere Stakes (1200m) at Randwick or the Group 2 Gilgai Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on Saturday but will now bypass both.
"He has got a few little niggling issues. Because of the level of racing he is going to compete at, we want to make sure he is 110 per cent," foreman Carl Poidevin said.
"He is not going around in a maiden or anything like that, he is stepping out against [good] horses.
"It is all manageable. He already had problems before we got him, so we are trying to deal with them. But he is certainly not that far away."
Fire Thunderbolt was due to make a return after 15-months away from the track in June but it never eventuated.
The gelding, which won a two-year-old Listed race while under Phillip Stokes in 2012, has only had two runs for Poidevin-Laine.
Both starts Fire Thunderbolt was out of the placings in March 2013 but the stable says when fully fit the son of California Dane can return to his best.
If the stable star had returned in the weekend's Premiere Stakes, he wouldn't have been the only one making a comeback. Group 1 winner Sincero returns after a year-long break.