Phillip Stokes is under no illusion the task confronting Arran Bay as he makes the progression from racing against his own age to open company.
Arran Bay will be racing for the second time as a four-year-old when he lines up in the Sportsbet Future Stars Jan 12 Handicap (1600m) on Saturday.
The race may only be of benchmark 78 level, and Arran Bay does have three wins to his credit from 11 starts, but Stokes believes it is still a stiff test for the gelding.
“We’re looking at building his profile but he’s going from his three-year-old year to being a four-year-old, which is hard,” Stokes said.
“But he’s a nice horse and we’ve got a nice opinion of him.”
Arran Bay showed promise during a winter campaign, that culminated in him winning the Silver Bowl Final (1600m) at Flemington in July.
Prior to that, Arran Bay had lined-up against Jimmy The Bear, finishing behind that galloper on a couple of occasions at Flemington, and also against Cardinal Gem, finishing fourth, at Caulfield in June.
At his first run since winning the Silver Bowl Final, Arran Bay finished fifth in a benchmark 70 race at Cranbourne over 1300m on November 12.
Stokes said Arran Bay had taken considerable improvement from that outing and will have Zac Spain back in the saddle, replacing apprentice Thomas Stockdale.
“He did a few things wrong and got very hot in the mounting yard first-up and had run his race before the race,” Stokes said.
“He worked well at Pakenham on Tuesday morning and Zac Spain knows the horse well.
“He’ll take his place and I think he’ll be there to run well.
“We won’t go too deep this prep if we don’t think he’s coping, so we’ll just take that as it comes.”
