Dodging Bullets has landed his first win for 18 months with his trainer Symon Wilde hoping he can hold his form through to the Warrnambool carnival.

Jumping from barrier one in the field of six in the Swettenham Stud Summer Championship Final on Thursday, Dodging Bullets scored a narrow win and Wilde is eyeing the major country carnival in May.

“I would love to keep him going through to the Warrnambool Cup,” Wilde said.

“Running him every three or four weeks may be the way to go.

“May is hard to aim at when you’ve got a horse up and running in summer as Warrnambool can be wet, but this horse is versatile and handles the wet.”

Ridden by Craig Williams, Dodging Bullets was sent out the $3.60 favourite before scoring a short-half-head win from Our Bottino ($4.40) with Refulgent ($4.20) 1-1/2 lengths away third.

It was Dodging Bullets fourth win from 14th starts in a career that has had to be carefully handled because he has bad hips.

“We’ve taken him to Ballarat and had scintigraphy done and we seem to be able to manage him quite well now,” Wilde said.

Wilde elected to tackle Thursday’s race despite the gelding not being well handicapped against third placegetter Refulgent from their meeting at Warrnambool earlier in the month.

Dodging Bullets was also an acceptor at Flemington on Saturday, but Wilde felt Thursday’s small field and the $100,000 prize money was a worthy target.

Article from JustHorseRacing.com.au