The training partnership of Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr unveiled one of their spring hopefuls at Moonee Valley on Saturday, with Space Rider launching his Caulfield Guineas campaign in style.

After racing twice in Brisbane as a juvenile, the colt was given time to mature and returned with a determined win in the Mick Gleeson Plate (1200m). Ridden by Beau Mertens, Space Rider ($8.50) unleashed a sustained finish to defeat Wise Inlaw ($20) by three-quarters of a length, with Estremo ($5.50) another length back in third.

The son of Street Boss won on debut at Eagle Farm last December before finishing fourth at the same venue a month later. Price said that second outing could be overlooked. “He wasn’t right at start number two. We were messing around with blood pictures that week and being an immature horse, he didn’t turn up that day. So, you just forget that run and judge him on today and what he did first-up.”

Price confirmed the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) was the ultimate goal, with a path through the Exford Plate and Stutt Stakes to get him there. “He’s a lovely big, lengthy horse. He’s got mile written all over him and he’s a lovely horse.”

Originally prepared out of the stable’s Sydney base, Space Rider had been entered at Rosehill last week but the heavy tracks prompted his return to Cranbourne. “We did have him in at Rosehill last week, but I said to the connections the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the grass is green,” Price said. “He did a good job to win over 1200 metres around here and I think he will be better at 1400 metres and a mile. The Sydney stable has been the making of this horse.”