THE mystery equine behaviourist given the task of taming barrier rogue Chautauqua was asked point-blank last week if the grey flash was ready to go back to the races.

Without hesitation the answer was “yes”.

Rupert Legh, part owner of the superstar sprinter is adamant that he has a happy, healthy horse that wants to keep racing, and just needs to shake what connections have determined is just a “bad habit”.

It’s a habit he’s seemingly kicked if footage Legh passed on to Racing NSW stewards, of a series of successful private jump outs and other trackwork, is any indication.

Legh even suggested Racing NSW chief steward Marc Van Gestel, who will ban Chautauqua from racing if he doesn’t jump in a special trial at Rosehill on Saturday, talk to the behaviourist himself.

Exactly what Chautauqua has been doing to get over his bad barrier habit remains private, with Legh to reveal all should the eight-year-old get through the first of two required trials this weekend.

But Legh said he had footage that would make people go “wow” when they saw it, including vision of Chautauqua standing on a box under the watchful eye of his therapist, who wants to remain “low key”.

“We’ve been really buoyed by what he’s been doing the last couple of weeks,” Legh told the Herald Sun on Wednesday. “As our man said, he’s a very hard nut to crack, a very strong-willed horse.

“I’ve been reluctant to make public what we have been doing behind the scenes to correct the horse. But it’s about fixing a habit.

“People are getting confused between a habit and a horse not wanting to race. We can all develop bad habits. You have to break that habit, and that’s why we have been doing something different.”

Legh has become increasingly frustrated with what he called “ïll-informed” views and opinions surrounding their decision to persist with getting Chautauqua, a winner of five Group 1s and nearly $9 million in prizemoney, back to the races after six failed barriers trials.

He said those uneducated opinions, from people outside the racing industry, had become part of the reasoning behind stewards not allowing the gelding to race unless he met the strict trial criteria, which Legh had to fight to get.

“All other people in the industry, other trainers, are encouraging me to keep going down this path,” he said. “But (stewards) are listening to what I could call uninformed people making commentary without knowing what I know and seeing what I see.

“Up at the farm you see a very happy, healthy racehorse. But he’s (Van Gestel) listening to too many uninformed opinions he should be discounting.

“I think it’s disrespectful to (trainer) John Hawkes, too. He would never, ever do the wrong thing by any of his horses. He’s a Hall of Fame trainer. You have to respect his decisions. If John said to me, ‘Rupe, I think he’s had enough,’ then so be it. But that’s just not the case.”

Legh said he “flippantly” suggested Chautauqua would race overseas if he didn’t jump on Saturday and the ban was upheld, but that no real thought had been given to anything beyond this trial.

Jockey Tommy Berry will ride, and the horse will be treated as if it’s going to the races, because, as Legh said, Chautauqua has never failed to leave the barriers in a race.

“They’ll take him there early, put him in his stall, walk him around, treat it like a normal race day,” Legh said. “We want everyone to sit back, take a deep breath and respect the people working with the horse. They are very good decent, human beings, always with the horse’s best interests at heart.

“I’m on a hiding to nothing. If he jumps, I won’t get any plaudits for what we’ve been doing, and I don’t want any. If he doesn’t jump, I’ll get whacked by those people who say he’s had enough.

“But we are not doing it for us. He’s done enough for us. No other horse I have in my lifetime will give me the thrills this guy has. It’s not about the money either. He owes us nothing. We don’t care if we earn another cent.

“Let’s just get him out thrilling the racing public. They want Chautauqua racing.”