“We were happy with his run last start, we probably would’ve liked to see him finish it off a bit better, but that was probably just the way the race was run, leaving him a bit flat-footed."
The familiar colours of Lib Petagna will be carried by Kalapour at Flemington on Saturday in a last-gasp bid for a spot in Tuesday’s Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m).
Despite having to sit wide throughout, promising juvenile Saltcoats proved too strong for his rivals in the feature race at Pukekohe on Saturday, the Listed Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Futurity Stakes (1400m).
Plenty of New Zealand’s thoroughbred nurseries were celebrating the elite-level success of their graduates at Randwick on Saturday and Haunui Farm were firmly in the mix.