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Mick Price On A Group One Mission

3 minute read

Melbourne trainer Mick Price is looking forward to extending his run of interstate success to Brisbane and Adelaide over the next month.

Price is in the midst of one of his best seasons, having won four Group One races with four different horses – all two and three-year-olds - with the promise of more to come at the Brisbane and Adelaide carnivals.

Mick Price
Mick Price Picture: Racing and Sports

“This season is one of the best I've had from a Group One perspective," Price said."It's a result of looking after young horses. We looked at them and nurtured them and they've repaid us.”

Price recorded his fourth G1 win for the season at Randwick on Saturday when the 2YO filly Seabrook was rewarded for her previous efforts in the Golden Slipper and ATC Sires’ Produce with a deserved win in the Champagne Stakes.

She joined Mighty Boss (Caulfield Guineas), Grunt (Australian Guineas) and Hiyaam (Vinery Stud Stakes) as Price’s G1 winners for the season so far.

Price, who has won 32 G1 races during his career, now has his sights on at least equalling his best ever G1 season of six majors in the 2008-09 season.

That season he won the VRC Oaks (Gallica), Thousand Guineas (Gallica), Australian Guineas (Heart Of Dreams), Toorak Handicap (Alamosa), Robert Sangster Stakes (Bel Mer) and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Pompeii Ruler).

He also won four G1 races in the 2013/14 season and has only once gone a season without a G1 success in the last 13 seasons.

Hiyaam
Hiyaam Picture: Steve Hart

Price is yet to win a G1 race in Queensland but is confident he can amend that in coming weeks with the filly Hiyaam and accomplished older mare Oregon’s Day leading his team at the carnival.

Hiyaam should have plenty to offer in Queensland after having only three autumn carnival starts in Sydney after her placing in the VRC Oaks in November.

After resuming with a third in the Phar Lap Stakes (1500m) she won the Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m) and finished second in the ATC Oaks (2400m), form that will make her favourite for the fillies classics in Brisbane.

Price plans to give Hiyaam her next start in the G2 Doomben Roses (2000m) on May 12 as her lead into the G1 Queensland Oaks (2200m) on May 26.

Oregon's Day, a luckless runner over the Sydney carnival where her performances included seconds in the G1 Coolmore Classic and G2 Emancipation Stakes, will kick offer her Queensland campaign in the G2 AD Hollindale Stakes (1800m) at the Gold Coast on May 5 before the G1 Doomben Cup (2000m) on May 19.

The Queensland races will be the first time Oregon’s Day has started over the longer trips, the 4YO having recorded three wins and seven placings in her first 18 starts from 1000m to 1600m.

Price is also focused on adding to his feature race record in Adelaide where he has won five G1 races including two Ubet Classics (Robert Sangster Stakes) with Bel Mer and last year’s winner Secret Agenda.

Secret Agenda is set to defend her Ubet Classic title on May 5 after her pleasing third in Saturday’s RN Irwin Stakes (1100m) at Morphettville. She will be joined in Adelaide by Price’s Australasian Oaks entries Palazzo Vecchio and Miss Admiration.

Secret Agenda
Secret Agenda Picture: Racing and Sports

Price has confirmed that Damien Oliver will replace Dom Tourneur as Secret Agenda’s rider in the Ubet Classic with the trainer planning to add blinkers to her gear.

Oliver is Price’s go to jockey in G1 races since Craig Newitt returned to Tasmania with the champion Melbourne rider teaming with the trainer for G1 wins on Secret Agenda, Grunt and Seabrook in the last 12 months.

The ATC Oaks form will also be a key guide to the Adelaide classic with Miss Admiration a big player after her third behind Unforgotten and stablemate Hiyaam at Randwick on April 14.

Price is also a chance to better his best ever season for wins after a weekend double with Seabrook at Randwick and Keysor at Ballarat brought up a century for his stable since August 1.

Price’s best ever season was in 2012/13 when he won 136 races. He can better that figure if he can average 12 wins a month over the last quarter of the current season.


Racing and Sports

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