Here De Angels has been passed to race at Grafton after a string of barrier incidents

It’s an usual occurrence to see a seven-year-old gelding slugged with a racing ban but that was exactly the scenario facing Here De Angels after a string of barrier incidents.

While it’s been a common sight in the two-year-old racing season Here De Angels was forced to prove himself in front of stewards after receiving a ban in September of last year.

In that time he’s had a change of owners with NSW vet John Crawley forking out a hefty $82,000, a big price to pay for a horse which will likely have a year or two left in him at best.

Now being trained in Goulburn by Wendy Roche, Here De Angels was passed by stewards but as always things were never that straight forward.

On June 10th he had his first test and things went ahead well jumping cleanly and gaining his first tick.

Unfortunately things didn’t go so smooth last Friday at Canberra when he was disrupted by a rival.

“It was minor,” South East region chairman of stewards Craig Yeo said.

“There was a horse drawn inside him that went off when it was loaded and Here De Angels went up, he got on his back legs.

“We said to Wendy Roche, rather than fail the horse we would want to see him trial on another occasion.”

He got that chance just three days later and back in Goulburn on Monday the horse did everything right and stewards were happy to lift the ban.

“He loaded fine, stood in the gates and jumped so he was passed to race,” Yeo said.

“As of yesterday he’s good to go.

“That’s three trials he’s had now and hasn’t presented any safety concerns which were the main issue.”

He can pretty much instantly repay the faith shown in him by his new owner when he contests the Ramornie Handicap at Grafton on July 13th.

He’ll be ridden by the same trials jockey Jeff Penza in the $130,000 event, a win more than justifying his price as a seven-year-old.