The training duo of Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr will field a trio of three-year-olds in a race at Caulfield Heath.
Brazen Dechambeau, Commit, and Dustee, all lightly raced, are set to compete against each other in The Vally @ Caulfield Handicap over 1200 metres on Saturday.
Each of these horses heads into the second week of the new racing season with prior starts, and Price is optimistic about their potential to progress beyond Saturday metropolitan races.
Price indicated that he would be in a better position to assess their suitability for Stakes company following Saturday’s run.
Brazen Dechambeau is now embarking on his third racing preparation.
He finished midfield on his debut at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day last year before a spell, returning to win at Pakenham in early January.
After being spelled, Brazen Dechambeau finished fifth over 1100 metres at Caulfield on July 25, and Price expects the increase in distance to be a positive factor on Saturday.
“He’s a good horse and he wants every inch of 1200 metres,” Price said. “He needed the run the other day and I think there will be good improvement.”
Commit is set for the third start of his preparation in Saturday’s race.
He defeated his stablemate Dustee at Sale on June 28 before a third-place finish behind the highly regarded American Eagle at Sandown on July 15.
American Eagle, having had only one start, is nominated for the Cox Plate for Anthony and Sam Freedman.
Price is hoping Commit can take up a more forward position on Saturday, having been slow to begin at Sandown.
“That was not my preferred option to be out the back on him, but he was a little bit slow away and he gave away a good start,” Price commented. “He was very good late and he’s capable of being a nice, metropolitan Saturday horse. He’s pretty cherry ripe.”
Price stated that Dustee has developed through racing and further training, describing the gelding as ‘tough’.
Dustee failed to show his best in his campaign opener at Bendigo but has since run second at Sale before winning his maiden at Seymour.
“Alana Kelly rode him at Bendigo,” Price explained. “He went around very green, like he was switched off, for whatever reason, so I put the blinkers on him, did some genuine solid work with him and that turned him. He’ll show up. He worked good on Saturday morning.”
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