Silkstar gets off the mark
The Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained Silkstar (Bel Esprit) made an impressive winning debut when she broke her maiden at Moe on Sunday.
The daughter of Bel Esprit showed a good turn of foot to pull 5.5l ahead of her nearest rival, Cent To War (Warhorse {NZ}).
“She actually sort of bounced evenly with the field but then she was able to muster and within two or three strides she’d taken up the lead very comfortably,” stable representative Ben Elam told Racing.com.
“She’s got that big, long stride on her, so D (Daniel) Moor just took bad luck out of the equation. Being the best horse in the race he sort of rode her like that. Moe is a tight-turning track and that’s not going to be her go; she was good enough to get around it.
“Very powerful down the straight and just clocked off the last 150 metres, so it was a very nice debut performance.
“She’s a filly that we’ve had a good opinion of, so it was a great debut. There’s plenty of options at this time of year for a filly that can debut like that.”
BCD Sprint target for Babylon Berlin
Babylon Berlin (All Too Hard) finished second at Group 1 level for the second consecutive time when she ran second behind Levante (NZ) (Proisir) in Saturday’s G1 Telegraph at Trentham and her trainer Ben Foote is not giving up the Group 1 dream yet with the mare.
Foote will wait and see how the mare comes out of the race before making any concrete decisions, but she will likely now be aimed at the G1 BCD Group Sprint (1400 metres) at Te Rapa next month.
“She deserves a Group 1 for sure. I will talk with Scott (Williams, owner),” Foote said.
“That (BCD Group Sprint) is pretty much our only option, otherwise the other races are in Melbourne.”
Melbourne targets on the horizon for Sagunto
Matamata trainers Peter and Shaun McKay are mulling foreign options for Sagunto (NZ) (O’Reilly {NZ}) after he finished second in the G3 Trentham S. on Saturday. Without a nomination for the G3 Wellington Cup back at Trentham in two weekends' time, the 7-year-old gelding may now head across the Tasman instead.
“In hindsight, I should have put a nomination in for the Wellington Cup. It is about a $7,000 late entry, so by the time you pay that and the entry, it is NZ$10,000. That is a bit harsh,” McKay said.
“I asked the question why it was so high when the Group 1 on the same day is only a NZ$1900 late entry. It doesn’t make much sense.”
McKay confirmed his next intended start will be Pukekohe, after which he may travel.
“There is not a lot for him,” he said. “I did do a little bit of homework last night to see if there were any 2400-metre or 2500-metre races over in Melbourne in the next month. I just want to see how competitive he is against a better lot of horses.
“I would rather spend my NZ$10,000 to go over there than run around here in a Group 3.”
Charm Stone to trial
G3 Ottawa S. winner Charm Stone (I Am Invincible) will take her next step towards her big-raced target of next month’s G1 Blue Diamond S. with an 800-metre Cranbourne trial on Monday morning.
Trained by Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, the juvenile filly has raced, having made her debut appearance in the Listed Maribyrnong Trial last October, finishing third.
“I’m going to trial her and then give her a couple of practice gallops at Sandown,” Price said.
“To be thorough you need to have a couple of practice goes at Sandown. It’s downhill, then there’s a dip and not every horse handles it.”
Price and Kent Jnr will also give a workout to G1 Cox Plate runner-up I’m Thunderstruck (NZ) (Shocking), with Jamie Kah replacing Mark Zahra.
“Jamie has won on him and I suppose it is Zaaki dependent – I’m not sure what Zaaki is doing – but we’ll kick off with J Kah and see what happens,” Price said.
Warwick Farm set for star-studded trials
Some Sydney-based stars will line up in official trials at Warwick Farm on Monday morning, including Anamoe (Street Boss {USA}), Icebath (NZ) (Sacred Falls {NZ}), El Bodegon (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) and Mo’unga (NZ) (Savabeel).
The latter was second in the G1 Champions S. on November 5, the race won by Zaaki (GB) (Leroidesanimaux {Brz}), and he is likely to be seen first-up in the G2 Apollo S. on February 11. However, Neasham warned that Mo’unga is unlikely to shine as he steps up his work.
“He’s very soft,” Neasham said. “It’ll be a leg stretcher around the back (of the course) and he’ll be on the bridle.”
Begg backing off Passive Aggressive
Trainer Grahame Begg has backed off his preparation with his promising sprinting mare Passive Aggressive (Fastnet Rock) and as a result she may not be seen in Melbourne during the Festival of Racing carnival.
The reason he has decided to slow down her preparation is to aim at her slightly wetter tracks in Sydney in the autumn, believing the Melbourne tracks are shaping up to be slightly too firm for the 4-year-old, who hasn’t been seen since running fourth in the G3 Cockram S. in August.
“We’ve backed off her as the tracks were firming up. She’s nearly ready to jump-out but the tracks are too firm. She’s been keeping fit on the water walker, and we’ll take her to Sydney for the wet tracks,” said Begg.
Benalla meet abandoned after fall
Benalla saw racing abandoned on Sunday afternoon following a fall in the first race. Jockey Lachlan King seemed to slip and came off Walltowall (Redente) when rounding the home turn, whilst John Keating came off Sharp As Ellie (Redente), with both horses continuing without their riders.
Suffering a possible shoulder injury, King was taken to hospital for scans, and following an inspection of the track by jockeys and stewards, the Heavy 8 surface was deemed unsafe to race on.
