Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr are preparing two colts for the Poseidon Stakes at Flemington, with the trainers looking towards more significant spring options.
Saturday’s 1100-metre dash down the Flemington straight is likely to serve as a prelude to the Danehill Stakes (1100m) on October 3, the Blue Sapphire Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on October 17, and the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington two weeks later.
Price stated that while Big Sky holds the class advantage over his stablemate Buggsy, the latter’s fighting spirit will carry him a long way.
“My man, Henry Jaggard, who rides a lot of my good ones and a lot of the Freedman’s good ones, he’s a very good judge,” Price said.
“He rides Buggsy and he rides Big Sky and he said he would go Big Sky, on class.”
Big Sky is undefeated after two starts, having been successful down the Flemington straight on debut in January before winning the Chairman’s Stakes at Caulfield.
He was scratched from Melbourne’s premier juvenile race, the Blue Diamond Stakes, after requiring arthroscopic surgery on a knee.
Price and Kent Jnr have given Big Sky three jump-outs in preparation for his return.
“Big Sky has had three trials knowing that he’s a colt and I want to keep his form good in case someone likes him as a colt,” Price added.
“His job, all being well will be the Poseidon, the Danehill, the Blue Sapphire and the Coolmore, being a sprinting Bivouac that he is.
“I think it’s a better race for him (than Buggsy) on class and I think Big Sky has improved as a horse.
“As a young horse he wasn’t getting it right but still winning well.”
While Price believes Big Sky has the edge in class, he is certain that Buggsy will be ready for a fight.
Buggsy scored on debut at Sandown before running third in the Redoute’s Choice Stakes at Caulfield in April.
He resumed last month to score at Sandown over 1000m.
“The Redoute’s Choice caught him on the way down,” Price explained.
“I was in two minds whether to run him, and I know he ran third, on paper, but it was not the right Buggsy that ran in that race.
“His tenacity, his fitness, his soundness, his desire, it may get him there.”
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