Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr were not initially convinced that extending Sabaj’s campaign beyond the Cranbourne Cup was the right move, but the training partners are now pleased they chose to push on.

The talented miler will line up in this Saturday’s $2 million Group 2 The Ingham at Randwick.

The 1600-metre feature comes three weeks after the $500,000 Cranbourne Cup (1600m), which Sabaj won in brilliant fashion, and Kent said the only reason the gelding is heading to Sydney is because of how well he recovered from that performance.

“To be honest, immediately post-race we were in two minds whether to push on or not, but the following morning Mick (Price) was in the stable and he was delighted with what he saw,” Kent said.

“The horse ate very well overnight, he wasn’t too tucked up and whilst he ran a track record, we think the horse coped really well with the run.

“There was no travelling involved being at Cranbourne, that probably helped a bit, and for a lighter-framed horse he looks good in the body.

“He had a week out at my farm, at Kingshaven, where he had some time on the grass, we did some dressage work with him just to put some condition back on…I think he’s in the zone, he feels great.”

Sabaj was among 28 entries for The Ingham when nominations closed on Monday, with contenders including Gringotts, Duke De Sessa, previous winners Loch Eagle and Robusto, and the progressive Yorkshire.

He galloped the Sydney way at Cranbourne on Saturday and will complete another right-handed hit-out on Tuesday before travelling north on Wednesday.

Price and Kent have recently revised their Sydney travel routine, and Sabaj will travel from Cranbourne to Nagambie for several hours’ rest before continuing up the Hume Highway.

“We used to go right the way through but we had one horse get sick so we’ve changed our system and now we break the trip up,” Kent said.

“If you go in the middle of the day you miss all the traffic, (he’ll be) head down in a green grass paddock for five hours then it’s seven hours to Rosehill from Nagambie.”

Sabaj has already proven he can handle travelling to Sydney, having debuted for Price and Kent in the 1300m Silver Eagle where he was a luckless sixth behind Linebacker, before his subsequent victories at Flemington and Cranbourne.

Punters looking ahead to The Ingham can compare bookmaker odds at Australia’s top betting sites.