John McArdle has a good measuring stick for Hellmuth ahead of the colt’s debut in the $200,000 Magic Millions Clockwise Classic.
Only two weeks ago the Mornington trainer unveiled another youngster, Power Trip, to win the Group Three Maribyrnong Stakes at Flemington.
“Power Trip would beat him, but probably wouldn’t beat him as far as you would think,” McArdle said.
“I’ve trained a number of stakes winning two-year-olds and I think Power Trip is one of the better ones I’ve trained.
“Hellmuth is a nice colt but we’ll have a better idea on Saturday and we’ll work out where to from there.”
Hellmuth cost $30,000 at the Tasmanian Magic Millions yearling sale, with McArdle buying the son of Wanted from Graeme McCulloch of Grenville Stud.
Grenville Stud bred this year’s Caulfield Cup winner Mongolian Khan and McCulloch has retained a share in Hellmuth.
“He wasn’t an expensive animal but he’s been well prepared,” McArdle said.
Hellmuth remained with McCulloch to be broken in and do his pre-training.
“He came up to me about six weeks ago in really good condition,” McArdle said.
“He had a nice jump-out at Sandown behind the horse that ran second in the Merson Cooper. He was third in a reverse-way jump-out at Ballarat the other day, and I’m happy with the horse.”
The Ballarat race is a chance for Magic Millions graduates to press their claims for the $2 million Magic Millions Classic at the Gold Coast in January.
McArdle said Saturday’s performance would determine how far Hellmuth went this campaign.
“If he runs super, we’d see how he pulled up and we may consider going to Wyong next month,” he said.
The Wyong Magic Millions is another lead-in to the Gold Coast Classic.
McArdle said Hellmuth’s Ballarat jump-out last week was the first time the colt had galloped clockwise, the same direction as Saturday’s race.
“He wanted to lay out a bit and did a few things wrong, but Jamie Mott came down on Tuesday and galloped him the reverse way at Mornington and he was a lot better,” McArdle said.
