Written by Paul Vettise

A change of environment has worked wonders for Temps Voleur (Time Thief) and on Thursday the 7-year-old opened his black type account when he produced a steely performance to land the Listed Heiniger Balaklava Cup.

The move to Chris Bieg’s Morphettville stable has reinvigorated the gelding’s career and he’s now won four of his seven starts from his new quarters.

“He came over from Melbourne and I’m so thankful to the owners,” Bieg said. “I’m just so proud of him, he’s so tough.”

Formerly with Robbie Laing, Temps Voleur had to call on all his resolve at Balaklava and, after holding the lead, he was under siege 400 metres from home. He was headed, but rose from the canvas to claim the feature prize on the card.

“To see him fight back like that made me super proud,” Bieg said. “I want to give a big thank you to my stable apprentice Justine Huxtable, who struggled with his weight, and unfortunately, he couldn’t achieve the 54kg.”

Huxtable’s bad luck turned out to be Georgina Cartwright’s good fortune and she was an able substitute.

“It’s my highest career win and there’s wasn’t a whole lot of room, but he dug in and tried so hard,” she said. “That’s my first ride for Chris so it’s great.”

Tatoosh (Thunder Gulch {USA}) raced with the pace and boxed on strongly for second ahead of Special Diva (Snitzel) and an unlucky Silvera (High Chaparral {IRE}). The grey was denied clear air until too late in the piece.

Pedigree Notes

A $70,000 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale purchase, Temps Voleur is a son of Babieta (Jeune {GB}) who failed to win a race, but she has done a handy job at stud. Her first foal Xaieta (Xaar {GB}) won three races and finished runner-up in the G3 Spring S., and of her five foals to race four have been successful.

Babieta is out of a half-sister to the G3 Grafton Cup winner Count Scenario (Scenic {IRE}) and his brother Dashing Scene, who won the G3 Kingston Town S.