Sabaj’s holiday can wait till after The Ingham

SYDNEY - Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr were not initially convinced extending Sabaj’s campaign beyond the Cranbourne Cup was a great idea, but the training duo are now glad they have.

The exciting miler will therefore take his place in the A$2 million (S$1.7 million) Group 2 The Ingham at Randwick on Dec 13.

The 1,600-metre event will be run three weeks after the A$500,000 Listed Cranbourne Cup (1,600m) on Nov 22, which Sabaj won brilliantly.

Kent said the only reason he is heading north this week is because of how well he has come through that race.

“To be honest, immediately post-race we were in two minds whether to push on or not, but the following morning Mick was in the stable and he was delighted with what he saw,” said Kent.

“The horse ate very well overnight, he wasn’t too tucked up and whilst he ran a track record, we think the horse coped really well with the run.

“There was no travelling involved being at Cranbourne, that probably helped a bit, and for a lighter-framed horse he looks good in the body.

“He had a week out at my farm, at Kingshaven, where he had some time on the grass.

“We did some dressage work with him just to put some condition back on. I think he’s in the zone, he feels great.”

Sabaj was one of 28 nominations for The Ingham when they closed on the morning of Dec 8, joined by the likes of Gringotts, Duke De Sessa, past winners Loch Eagle and Robusto and the progressive Yorkshire.

Sabaj worked the Sydney way of going at Cranbourne on Dec 6 and will do so again on Dec 9 morning before starting his trip to Sydney the next day.

Price and Kent have recently changed their travel routine to Sydney. The Manhattan Rain four-year-old will head from Cranbourne to Nagambie and have a few hours’ rest before making the trip up the Hume Highway.

“We used to go right the way through but we had one horse get sick, so we’ve changed our system and now we break the trip up,” said Kent.

“If you go in the middle of the day, you miss all the traffic. (He’ll be) head down in a green-grass paddock for five hours, then it’s seven hours to Rosehill from Nagambie.”

Sabaj has already coped well with a trip to Sydney.

The former South Australian’s first run for Price and Kent came in the Group 3 Silver Eagle (1,300m) at Randwick on Oct 18, when he was a luckless sixth behind Linebacker, which preceded his wins at Flemington and Cranbourne.
SKY RACING WORLD