3 minute read
It didn’t go unnoticed just how quietly Jason Collett was sitting on board Scampi as the colt made light work of his job at Monday’s official two-year-old trials on the Kensington track.
A $750,000 son of Blue Point, and a half-brother to Group 3 winner Semillion, Scampi looked the part in a soft all the way win over 843m running reasonably sound time for the journey, especially when you consider Collett's lack of urgency.
On the evidence of this first hitout, the Ciaron Maher & David Eustace-trained colt should be nominal favourite for the Group 3 Breeders' Plate (1000m) if they head that way on September 30.
We'll tackle the colts and geldings divisions first, and Straight Charge certainly knew he was there to race as he clocked the fastest time of the morning in the opening heat.
The colt, a $270,000 son of Written By, was stoked up to lead and was pressured by Roselyn's Star and headed by that horse early in the straight. Under riding he came back to win by about a length in what looked a testing gallop.
Volatile was one of few trial winners to sweep home from the back and in doing just that he ran slightly faster time than Scampi in scoring over the same distance.
He was asked to accelerate and the $550,000 colt out of the Snowden yard did just that as he picked them up quickly and was eased down late.
That's good race craft to take into his debut, he looks a professional type.
Another Snowden charge to do everything right was Pierata colt Fearless and he had to cope with a bit of traffic before winning his heat.
He settled fourth and ran up behind the leaders but became held up as Prost, a $650,000 Snitzel colt from the Waterhouse/Bott stable, dashed to the lead but Fearless did a good job to pick him up though the time was the slowest of the four 850m trials.
Highness appeared to take everything in his stride in winning his heat, he jumped well and travelled nicely before hitting the lead early in the straight and holding the closers.
He's a $900,000 Snitzel colt in the Michael Freedman yard and the time of 49.29 was around the mark for the morning outside the opening heat.
Could Gai and Adrian have a second successive Group 3 Gimcrack Stakes winner (1000m) with Lady Of Camelot, a half-sister to the 2022 winner Platinum Jubilee?
This Written Tycoon filly did some work early to lead then sprinted away around the turn, she was given an easy time in the last 100m while putting four lengths on her rivals.
She ran 49.04 so they weren't loafing.
Tulloch Lodge won all but one of the fillies trials and Lady Tassort was another impressive victor as she led all the way to win her heat in similar time (considering 5m less) to Lady Of Camelot.
She shook off stablemate Shivermepink in the last 200m and stretched away well to score by about two lengths.
There was always going to be attention on Invincible Madison when she stepped out, being a $1.2 million daughter of the speedy Super Too.
She's in the Snowden yard and she didn't disappoint but certainly has a different racing pattern to her mother who often made a mess of barrier trials with huge winning margins.
The filly didn't show a lot of early speed but worked through the field before coming off heels and sprinting sharply to win running away.
Time was on the slower side but it was only her first outing.
