A sizzling display of speed by two-year-old colt Profiteer to win his debut didn’t come as a surprise for trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent Junior, who had assessed him as one of their best youngsters.
Profiteer showed great speed to lead from the outset in the #Lovethehorse Handicap and he sprinted away to win by 2-3/4 lengths in a time of 1:02.08 minutes, which was only .65 seconds outside the Flemington 1100 metre course record.
For the first 700 metres, Profiteer and Michael Dee were stalked by Ben Melham on favourite Ranveer but with 300 metres to go he left him asunder.
Kent Junior said the next decision they had to reach was whether they targeted the $2 million Inglis Millennium at Warwick Farm on February 6 or the $1.5 million Blue Diamond Stakes on their home track of Caulfield on February 20.
Kent Junior said Profiteer was in the top three youngsters in their stable.
“Whether he will be the best horse in time, time will tell, but he’s definitely the most precocious,” he said.
Kent Junior said he wasn’t surprised by the style of the win as he replicated what he did when he won his trial at Traralgon.
Profiteer, who is by boom first season stallion Capitalist, has shown the stable he is a natural two-year-old who has the right attributes to develop into a high-class juvenile.
“He’s got good gate speed, he can go at a quick tempo and then find again. He’s got a really big action, he’s light on his feet,” Kent Junior said.
His jockey Michael Dee said he knew Profiteer had a lot of natural speed but the key was getting him to relax, which he did.
“We led, we rolled along, but he was comfortable and that was the key with him today. He was able run right through the line,” Dee said.
Both Dee and Kent Junior said Profiteer had a lot of improvement to come.
