Electrical sparks big-race dreams for Brian Toomey

Brian Toomey’s first-ever two-year-old winner could prove worth the wait after Electrical marked himself as an exciting prospect with a power-packed display on debut at Newbury.

The former jockey turned trainer – who sustained life-threatening injuries in a fall at Perth in 2013 – had previously never sent out a juvenile winner from his Chalfont St Giles base before the Jeff Smith-owned son of Nathaniel turned up the voltage on some useful looking rivals.

Toomey was thrilled to see Smith’s famous purple silks carried to success in his name and, although sent off a 25-1 shot for his racecourse bow, his handler was always confident he had a smart youngster on his hands.

“It meant a lot for me to train my first two-year-old winner and it to be a homebred winner of Jeff’s and Jeff was there on the night,” said Toomey. “He’s a very special man and it’s a privilege to train for him.

“It looked a bit brave going for a Newbury novice and his sire Nathaniel isn’t known for two-year-old runners and he was also taking on a colt of Eve Johnson Houghton’s (Goldwork) that had won well last time out.

“So it looked like it would be a really competitive event but his work at home had been very good and albeit I’m a very small stable so he hadn’t been overworked, I had done a barrier trial with him at Lingfield which was a great experience with him and gave me some confidence.”

Toomey will now consult with Smith and his team before deciding the next step of Electrical’s career, but he could be seen in deeper waters later in the season to continue his on-track education.

“He’s a big, big horse so to win at this stage of his career can only be a bonus,” continued Toomey.

“I will discuss in depth with Jeff and David Bowe (racing manager) what we do next and I think I will potentially step him up a furlong.

“It’s hard to win a novice under a penalty isn’t it, so when there’s some ease in the ground I might look at some of the nice two-year-old races later in the season at Doncaster and Newbury.

“For now there’s no rush with him, we’ll give him time to get over his debut and hopefully strengthen up again ahead of whatever we decide to do next.”