News

Logic to determine Samaready's path

2nd Aug 2012

The Age - Michael Sharkie - Thursday, 2 August 2012

LOGIC rather than expectation will determine the spring path for Blue Diamond winner Samaready as the dominant two-year-old filly of last season prepares to start her three-year-old year.

Trainer Mick Price is confident that simplicity is the key to delivering a second group 1 for Samaready, and will play to her sprinting strengths as he prepares the filly for the $1 million Golden Rose on September 15.

''I would think that a very logical preparation would be a first-up run in the Quezette Stakes [1100 metres], then second-up two weeks later in the McNeil [1200 metres], and then two weeks to the Golden Rose,'' he said. ''That makes a lot of sense in my opinion, and we can think about guineas and other races later on.''

Such a program would keep Samaready at her home track at Caulfield until the Golden Rose, giving Price plenty of time to build the filly up for her first attempt beyond 1200 metres - a distance that Price is confident the filly will handle.

''I certainly think that 1400 metres will be within reach of a filly like her. Physically she has lengthened a bit and made some improvement, and that could help,'' he said.

On Monday, Samaready stepped out at the Caulfield jumpouts and pleased Price with a comfortable win in what he described as solid time.

Although many punters would expect Victoria's dominant two-year-old filly to target the Thousand Guineas this spring, Price reaffirmed that he would not decide on attempting to stretch the filly to a mile or reverting to sprinting until he sees the horse at 1400 metres in the Golden Rose.

He is certain, though, that he will not ask Samaready to fill the void left by Black Caviar in open-age sprint races this spring.

''There's a pretty good Group 1 [the Coolmore Classic] against her own age at Flemington worth $500,000 … and I've got no rush to take [the older horses] on,'' he said.

''There are plenty of races against her own sex before we think about taking on older horses in the autumn.''

Price's other gifted two-year-old filly of last season, Malasun, is likely to tread a similar path to Samaready this spring, although an elevated white cell count this week will delay her reappearance at the races.