The highly touted Man In The Mirror has kicked off his racing career in fine fashion by taking out the opening event at Warwick Farm on Wednesday.
Purchased for $1.8 million at the Magic Sales on the Gold Coast in January, the colt is the most expensive Not A Single Doubt yearling to ever be sold at auction.
Debuting over 1000m, the two-year-old colt jumped only fairly from his inside draw and landed a spot just off the pace when settling under the riding of Tommy Berry.
Travelling in a similar spot throughout, Berry looking to get off the fence when rounding the home turn, crept his mount closer to the leading pair.
Biding his time in behind runners, Berry edged off heels passing the 200m, prompting the colt for his full effort.
Quickly accelerating, the eye-catching two-year-old promptly put pay to his rivals, finding the front inside the final 50m and holding on for an impressive debut victory.
Starving off a late challenge by second elect and debutant runner Paris Dior, trainer Annabel Neasham was thrilled, and somewhat relieved with the authoritative manner of her colt’s victory.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t (relieved), particularly when you know he’s a nice colt and you just want him to deliver for connections,” Neasham said.
“He was still green. It’s funny they can look so profession at the trials, and you bring them to the races and it does show they are having their first start sometimes. He was having a bit of a look around, but he got there in the end.
“He’s going to get better over a little but more ground. The 1000m today was certainly as short as we wanted to go.
“He’s an absolute beauty of a colt and hopefully he can go onto bigger and better things in the Autumn.”
Equally as delighted, Tommy Berry was full of praise for the debutant runner and is excited for what lies ahead for the two-year-old.
“It was a good effort. I was a bit worried about 1000m with him because it’s well short of what his best trip is going to be, but that’s why the Winkers went onto him today,” Berry said.
“In both trials he’s been outside horses, so he wasn’t really comfortable where he was, which worried me in the run, but when I gave him a little slap coming to the corner and it was just a matter of getting out.
“Even when he got out he still wanted to lay out a little bit, but he got the job done quite comfortably and I eased him down late.
“In his jump-outs he just had that natural ability, there was nothing that really stood out, he just oozed that little bit of class. He’s got a lot of improvement, probably more improvement than some of the 2YO winners I’ve ridden this year.”
“He’s obviously a Magic Millions horse, so they’ve got that option, but I think he could be a little bit better than that hopefully.”
Whether or not Neasham and connections head north with Man In The Mirror in the new year, the colt has shortened into $21 with tab.com.au for the Magic Millions 2YO Classic.