Mark Kavanagh is reluctant to commit to a start for Alezan Thunder in the $2 million Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic at the Gold Coast despite her thrashing her rivals in the Swettenham Stud Dash For Cash at Sandown.
The Written Tycoon filly has now won twice from three starts, scoring over 1000m on debut at Morphettville in October and finishing third to Applegate in the Listed Emirates Airlines Stakes (1000m) at Flemington on Melbourne Cup day.
A drifter in the betting from $2.40 to start $2.70 favourite Alezan Thunder, wearing winkers for the first time, was always prominent after jumping from barrier one on Saturday and raced away to score by 3-3/4 lengths from Ephemera ($6.50) with Flying Hostess ($16) third.
The filly ran the 900m trip in 51.41 seconds which is a course record, beating the time Members Joy ran (53.01s) in winning the first Dash For Cash run on a soft track on November 26.
“We’ll have to have a chat with the boys (owners) and see how we go. Obviously she’s above average,” Kavanagh said regarding a start in the Gold Coast 1200m feature on January 14.
“The knock (on taking her to the Gold Coast) would be the opposite way, if it rained … don’t know. We might be better off doing something else. We’ll wait and see.”
Surprisingly Alezan Thunder was not one of the 14 two-year-olds Kavanagh nominated for the $1 million Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on February 25.
“We paid $50,000, something like that for her. We bought her without the catalogue, without the breeding, just walked around and picked out the best type,” he said.
“How long has this been going on.”
Winning jockey Stephen Baster, who leaves for a six-month stint in Singapore on January 15, was impressed with the filly.
“Kav said she’s a bit flighty but she did everything right today. She was really quiet in the gates and pinged the machines well,” he said.
“Obviously having had a couple of runs already helped and she was pretty strong on the line.
“She’s a nice filly and hopefully she’ll win better races.”
AAP TURF
