Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr are preparing two colts for the Poseidon Stakes at Flemington, with the trainers eyeing more significant spring carnival targets.
This Saturday’s 1100-metre dash down the Flemington straight is expected to serve as a lead-up 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 noted that Big Sky possesses the class edge over his stablemate Buggsy, but Buggsy’s fighting spirit could take him far.
“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 stated.
“He rides Buggsy and he rides Big Sky and he said he would go Big Sky, on class.”
Big Sky has been unbeaten in his two career starts, including a victory down the Flemington straight on debut in January, followed by a win in the Chairman’s Stakes at Caulfield.
He was subsequently scratched from Melbourne’s premier juvenile race, the Blue Diamond Stakes, due to undergoing arthroscopic surgery on a knee.
Price and Kent Jnr have given Big Sky three jump-outs in preparation for his return to racing.
“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 commented.
“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 concedes Big Sky holds the class advantage, he is certain that Buggsy will be up for the fight.
Buggsy scored on debut at Sandown and later ran third in the Redoute’s Choice Stakes at Caulfield in April.
He resumed last month with a victory at Sandown over 1000m.
“The Redoute’s Choice caught him on the way down,” Price recalled.
“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.”
Check out the latest racing odds for the Poseidon Stakes.