Day not a great one for The Hombre's race bid | Hawkes Bay Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Hawkes Bay

How many times do you roll out of the perceived right side of your bed any given morning with a spring in your step to work, but at 5pm wondered why you bothered.

Well, that's the sort of vein in which Hastings co-owner/trainer John Bary wants racegoers to picture The Hombre after the 4-year-old gelding finished seventh with Jonathan Riddell in the $200,000 Mudgway feature race on Saturday in Hastings.

Coming "off colour" last week, Bary told SportToday the horse had a good run in the conditions, showing he was a stayer at the 2000m distance.

While he worked fine after regulation blood tests, Bary had a gut feeling it wasn't going to be The Hombre's day to break the Mudgway hoodoo in becoming the first Hawke's Bay horse to etch its name on the silverware.

Bary threw in the analogy of sprint king Usain Bolt who blitzes 100m runs but wouldn't cut it at marathons.

"Athletes can't stay up all the time and they need a bit of sun too," he said, saying The Hombre did not get caught up at the starting gate.

"It was a testing track - a slow 8 but it was pugging in rather than cutting out so it was not allowing the horses to get their foot out."

He sung almost the same tune as Keep The Peace trainer Shaune Ritchie, claiming The Hombre needed to be built up against journeyman before a title-winning bout.

"It's not about yesterday [Mudgway] or the next one [Windsor Park Plate on September 18] but the third one [ the Kit Ormond Memorial Spring Classic on October 2] over 2040m."

The $3 million Cox Plate in Melbourne "pricks your ears up a little bit".

While Bary was only in his third season as trainer but from a proud family background of Melbourne Cup winners, he considered himself lucky to have the backing of fellow Bay co-owners in Ivan Grieve, John O'Sullivan and Chris Skerman.

He didn't think there was pressure to win for the Bay but hoped to bring joy to the province which has got behind The Hombre.