THIS time last year a three-year-old named Black And Bent was an unknown in jumps circles. With a second from one start over hurdles, he quickly announced himself with a race-record winning run in the maiden hurdle on the first day of the 2009 May Racing Carnival. he performance by the Robert Smerdon-trained gelding, a half-brother to two-time Australian jumps horse of the year Some Are Bent, was impressive but even his jockey Brad McLean refused to get carried away with the triumph.

McLean, who partnered Some Are Bent to a Galleywood Hurdle victory in 2007, was cautious in his assessment of the half-brother.

Fast forward 366 days and Black And Bent is back at the carnival and will today line up as one of the favourites for the $100,000 Galleywood Hurdle (3200m). Since that breakthrough success last autumn, Black And Bent has posted three wins, two seconds and a third from eight jumps starts, including victory in the $101,000 Lachlan Hurdle (3900m) at Sandown last August.

Even Smerdon was surprised at Some Are Bent’s rapid progression. “We started that preparation last year with no plan to it,” Smerdon said. “We were always going to swap him over to the jumps. We thought we would give him one or two races and then he was set up to be an educated jumper for this season. “But he was coping with what was going on and he won a feature.

“He did an enormous job.” Smerdon said after a nice break, the four-year-old had been set for this season. “He is a fair bit better horse than last year,” he said. Is he as good as his big half-brother at the same age?

“No,” Smerdon said.

While the horses had similarities, they were also quite different. Some Are Bent made a slow start to his jumping career, Black And Bent didn’t, Some Are Bent loves the wet, Black And Bent doesn’t, Some Are Bent loves to lead and Black And Bent doesn’t.

“At this stage Black And Bent is quite promising,” Smerdon said.