Not content to rest after landing his first Group Two winner recently, Ben Brisbourne is pushing for greater two-year-old accomplishments.
The Wangaratta horseman will head his unraced filly Salann into the Listed Fernhill Mile (1600m) over Randwick’s track on Saturday, with sights set on the Group 1 Champagne Stakes (1600m) the subsequent week.
Out of Shamus Award, the filly Salann began her career in Flemington’s Group 3 Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes (1200m), surging late for a solid second to the commanding Satono Glow.
Her excellent gallop at home Tuesday left Brisbourne satisfied to progress directly to the mile test for Salann.
“We were just seeing how she’d gallop, but she galloped a treat so we’re just confirming all the things now,” Brisbourne said.
“She galloped over 1000 metres, quickened up the last 600 with an older horse as a bunny and got to the older horse real easy, and that wasn’t the impressive part, it was when it took the rider half a mile to pull her up.
“She got home super on debut, we knew that 1200 (metres) was going to be on the sharp side for her, we were just hoping to see her finish going forward and picked up a stakes placing on her debut, and she’s trained on well.”
Though Brisbourne at first pegged Salann as a sprinter among juveniles, further evidence points to her staying prowess emerging early.
“We always thought she was a jump-and-run two-year-old and she was sort of our sharper type,” Brisbourne said.
“But the more we’ve been getting through the jump outs and the trials, the more the feedback was she’d be a lovely 1,400-metre horse and beyond.”
Salann’s stablemate Grinzinger Heart struck at long odds in the Group 2 VRC Sires (1400m), positioning her to potentially eclipse that feat against her in the Champagne Stakes.
“I think she’s going that well, and we’ve got in the back of our minds that if she is as strong a stayer as we think she is as a two-year-old, if she ran well, she’d go into that with the view of backing up the following week in the Champagne,” Brisbourne said.
“Grinzinger Heart is great as well, she’s trialling Wednesday at Wagga and she goes to the Champagne as well.
“Last year we only had maybe one or two two-year-old runners, this year we haven’t really got the stock either but the two we’ve got to the races are stakes level already.
“I’d love a hundred yearlings to walk into the stable every year but it just doesn’t happen so we’ll try and do the best with what we’ve got.”
Bookmakers have Salann at $8 across all-in Fernhill Mile markets, and Tyler Schiller has the mount.
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