Big Sky (AUS)
Big Sky (AUS)
2 c Bivouac – Zoom By by Red Dazzler
O: R & C Legh Racing Pty Ltd, B & C Thoroughbreds Pty Ltd, Mr D F Matthews, Miss K A Smith, Mr W J Ouston, Mr H A Bentley, Martec Racing, Mr D P Tyler, Mr S J Rutherford, Sb Racing, Mr S J Perry, Mr D M Placella, Mr J Armitage, Mr E Campbell, Mr K F Cronan
B: Eureka Cambooya Thoroughbreds Pty Ltd, Qld
T: Mick Price & Michael Kent (Jnr)
S: 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale V: Eureka Stud P: Mick Price Racing & Breeding Pty Ltd, $140,000
W: TAB We’re On, 1000m, January 17, Flemington
Exciting colt Big Sky (Bivouac) kicked off his career in perfect fashion with a dominant debut win down the Flemington straight on Saturday, launching himself into Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) contention.
The Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained colt was too strong in the TAB We’re On (1000m), overcoming the widest draw to score by 2.8 lengths under Jordan Childs ahead of Mirador (Brazen Beau), with Boridi (Profiteer) a further 0.7 lengths away in third.
“It worked out pretty well, really,” Kent Jnr said. “He did a lot wrong in the first part of the race but I thought Jordy [Childs] rode him perfectly.
“The plan was to ride the horse first and the race second, just keep it smooth. He got across relatively easily, the horse has got natural speed, and I suppose the impressive part was the way he travelled deep into the race, and then the acceleration was instant when he went for it and he really ran right past the line.”
While the stable stopped short of ranking their Blue Diamond prospects, Big Sky and last month’s Cranbourne debut winner Guest House (Home Affairs) are now likely to meet in the Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 3, 1100m) (C&G) at Caulfield on February 7.
“We haven’t matched them up,” Kent Jnr said. “We don’t let them off the bridle until race day, and all you can do is go and win like that. He’s won very impressively but it’s only going to get harder from here.
“If you didn’t go to the 1100 [metre] Prelude, you’d go to the Chairman’s Stakes [Gr 3, 1000m], but the 1100 metres is a nice stepping stone to the 1200 metres of a Blue Diamond.”
Purchased from the draft of Eureka Stud at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $140,000, Big Sky is the third winner from three to race out of the winning Red Dazzler (Red Ransom) mare Zoom By.
A half-sister to Big Sky by Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) will be on offer out of the Eureka Stud draft at the upcoming Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, catalogued as Lot 607.