It's just shy of a decade since Port Lincoln trainer Kristy Oyarzun last saddled a runner of her own.
A key component of Gawler trainer Gary Searle’s satellite stable on the West Coast, Oyarzun walked away from racing and explored Australia with her family back in 2012.
“It’s been a while,’’ Oyarzun said.
“My family and I started travelling around Australia in our 40-foot bus so that’s why I stepped away from training at Morphettville,’’ she said.
Oyarzun was last successful in 2009 when Colonel Spicer won at Morphettville.
And she has her work cut out trying to resurrect the career of Caralue who had five starts for Gordon Richards before joining the John Dunn and Krystal Bishop stable.
She won a Port Lincoln maiden in November 2020 but has managed just two placings in her past 16 starts and since resuming last October and has an average beaten margin of more than nine lengths in her eight runs.
“Fingers crossed she’ll run well,’’ Oyarzun said.
“I’ve known the owner Bill Butterfield since I worked for Gordon Richards many years ago.
“I caught up with him at Port Lincoln and he mentioned that John Dunn was thinking of retiring her and asked me if I’d take her on.
"That’s how it all come about,’’ she said.
And she has immediately stepped the four-year-old out of her comfort zone racing beyond 1100m for the first time in her 24-start career.
“She’s never run at this distance before,’’ Oyarzun said.
“I used to ride her mother (Monica Kate) and she was a good distance runner, so we thought we try something new
“She’s really fit and really well, hopefully she can pull something out on Wednesday,’’ she said.