Like a number of trainers with a smart young horse, the lure of a big race during the spring is never far from their minds.
Cranbourne-based trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr are no different.
They already have Golden Slipper winner Guest House aiming high and would like to see Buggsy tread a path to some spring glory.
But first they will see how Buggsy shapes in his return run in the Chef’s Hat Handicap (1000m) at Sandown on Saturday.
Buggsy registered a debut win over the course and distance in March and followed it up with a third-place finish in the Listed Redoute’s Choice Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on April 11.
Kent Jnr said Buggsy had ‘come of age’ this campaign.
“He won track and distance on debut, albeit very greenly, and he had probably come to the end of his prep when he ran third in a Listed race,” Kent Jnr said.
“Whilst he only got beaten a length and ran third, I thought there was a bit more there and that he had come to the end of it by then, so we gave him a nice break, and have set him for the spring.
“He’s trialled up well and I think there’s improvement to come. His trackrider thinks the run will bring him on and it’s hard to disagree with him.
“He’s a strong colt but I think he’s forward enough for 1000 metres.”
While Kent Jnr said Buggsy was forward enough to run and potentially win over 1000m on Saturday, he said it was not an easy task getting the colt ready on the rain-affected tracks.
“It’s the same every spring,” Kent Jnr said.
“We’re ducking and diving, avoiding Polytrack trials and waiting for the grass, but we’ve had a pretty good run with him.
“He’s had two good grass trials, he went well in the second one when he went head and head with a Group 1 filly from New Zealand (Lara Antipova) and they cleared out from third.
“He’s a sprinting colt. We don’t think we’ll get him out to a mile this preparation.
“That’s our feel at the moment and the obvious races beckon if he goes well on Saturday.”
Craig Williams who rode Buggsy to victory on debut, is reunited with the colt on Saturday.
