Talented three-year-old gelding Otago remains undefeated after a narrow victory at Flemington on Saturday in the Victorian Jockeys Association Trophy (1400m).
The Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained son of Ocean Park had been a dominant maiden winner at Bendigo last month, defeating a pair of subsequent winners.
Despite being far from the finished article, the raw Kiwi import set a new class record of 1:22.46 for three-year-old BenchMark 70 gallopers as he chased down the leaders Valois and Very Sewreel.
Jockey Beau Mertens had Otago perfectly positioned in third throughout and despite showing a few signs of greenness he dug deep to land the spoils in the manner of a horse that will appreciate getting over further.
Mertens is a fan of the youngster, who he also rode to victory at Bendigo.
“Coming into the straight I sort of gave him a little bit of a niggle and those horses in front of me kicked into the straight quite nicely,” Mertens said.
“I had to do a little bit of work to get them actually. I sort of got to them and struggled to fight them off. He got there and probably had a bit of a think about it. He is a raw horse and he did a good job to win.
“He had to fight a bit and he had to work to get past better horses than he met in his maiden. He has got ability this horse and I really, really like him. As he matures, he is only going to get better.”
Otago sports the colours of syndicators Roll The Dice Racing, and Director Steve Travaglia was relieved to see the well-tried $1.75 favourite claim the narrow victory.
Pre-race there had been talk of a tilt at the Gr.1 Australian Guineas (1600m) on March 2, a race Price has won previously on three occasions with Light Fantastic (2008), Heart Of Dreams (2009) and Grunt (2018).
“Horses can get over-hyped a little bit and you always worry that it can go the other way, but this guy is pretty new and green but got the job done,” Travaglia said.
“I will leave it up to Mick and Junior to work out whether an Australian Guineas is on the radar. You’d love to think so but that’s a bit of a dream and he has obviously still got a fair bit of learning to do.
“He switches on and off and Beau had his hands full for a while. We will see what happens.”
Bred by Canterbury-based breeders Cheryl Wilson and Bruce Sheat, Otago’s dam is the one-win Hussonet mare Steel Stilettos, making him a half-brother to the stakes winners Boots ‘N’ All, Toms and Air Max.
The chestnut son of Ocean Park was purchased as a yearling by Byerley Park-trainer Shaun Clotworthy for $50,000 at the 2022 Karaka Book 1 draft of Brighthill Farm.
Clotworthy, who trains in partnership with wife Emma, prepared Otago to win an Avondale trial in April in impressive fashion, defeating Overdrawn and Lupo Solitario, who have also gone on to prove smart three-year-olds.
“We see a lot of horses that trial in New Zealand and we have got a process with Junior and Mick and Phill Cataldo over there,” Travaglia said.
“We just stick to what we know and what we like. There are certain things that we look for and it seems to be working at the moment.”
Emma Clotworthy remains in the ownership of the progressive Otago, along with fellow Kiwis Kerri Spence and Terry, Jane and Connor Lines.