Watch 📺 Ugly duckling makes winning debut at Caulfield

The Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr -trained Unconquerable has lived up to the early hype placed on her with a debut win at Caulfield.

The $180,000 yearling purchase at the 2022 Easter Yearling Sale in Sydney, was held back early by her trainers before racing for the first time in the Become An MRC Member Plate (1100m) on Thursday.

Right from the time the daughter of I Am Invincible was purchased Price said she would need time.

Price said pre-sale x-rays revealed vascular channel sesamoids.

“That means the sesamoid doesn’t have the density of bone that you want,” Price told racing.com.

“So, what we have done is be very gentle with her. She’s quite a sizeable horse, a little bit ugly, although she’s not that ugly now.

“The purist would look at her and say, ‘how did he buy that’, big sway back, boof head, but I liked the movement of her, and I think she’s a ‘Black Type’ horse coming.”

Ridden by Damian Lane, Unconquerable, the $1.85 favourite with wagering sites, scored a three-quarter length win from the well-supported Flying Mean ($3.50) with River Rose ($9) a further 1-¾ lengths away third.

Price said Unconquerable would derive plenty of improvement from Thursday’s outing noting the filly was still very green.

“I saw a horse that was off-and-on, that had no idea,” Price said.

“I was glad he (Lane) got up on the fence and wasn’t amongst horses.

“What she finds under pressure in better races remains to be seen, but today was a nice day for her.

“There’s improvement to come from a clean-winded filly and 1200 (metres) will be no problem.”

Lane said he had ridden Unconquerable in jump-outs ahead of Thursday’s race and did not want to bustle the filly too early in the contest.

He said the way the race panned out was almost perfect, although once placed under pressure Unconquerable did not know what she was doing.

“Initially I thought I would have to light her up to hold the lead, but I succumbed to the fact I was going to have take a sit in behind,” Lane said.

“In her trials she had wanted to overdo it a bit, so I didn’t want to give her that signal to go unless it was time to really go.

“As those horses outside me didn’t fully cross, we got to the 700 (metres) and it was too late then for them to cross, so I kicked her through and to her credit that was an experience she hadn’t had before.

“But she was really good to the finish.”