French gelding starts path to the Melbourne Cup at Caulfield
Jarred Magnabosco is slightly nonplussed at the long-odds move for Newlook at Caulfield this Saturday, but the Best Bloodstock boss is buoyed by the endorsement in the horse’s ability.
The French gelding has been $16 into $7 equal second favouritism for the $150,000 Stow Storage Solutions BM100 Handicap (1600m), which will be his first start in Australia.
It will be the first time the four-year-old has raced short of 2000m, which has Magnabosco cautious about what to expect on debut for the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young stable, but he likes that someone has been impressed with what they have seen in him.
“He goes into a benchmark 100 over a mile, which is well short of his best, and we’ll look to get back in the field and hit the line strongly,” Magnabosco said.
“This is more of a tie-over race leading into spring, so if he can run past a few and finish off strongly hitting the line hard, that’ll be a pass mark for us.”
Newlook is part of a new frontier for Best Bloodstock after Magnabosco made his debut trip to the famed Arqana sale ground in France last November for the Autumn Sale.
He bought Newlook in partnership with Busuttin Racing for €480,000 – the equivalent of AU$855,000 today – which was almost double the next most expensive horse sold at the sale.
Best Bloodstock beat Michael Kent Jnr and Gai Waterhouse New Bay’s UK agent Johnny McKeever for the well-related son of New Bay.
“He was well sought-after by some of the big stables in Australia and I’m just glad I got on top and got that final bid,” he said.
“Now it’s all up to the horse to show us he’s the right purchase.
“I had some good support behind me leading into the sale and I really wanted to land and international horse that we could target as a Cups runner.
“He came up in the catalogue and I went back and looked at his footage and thought he just looked like a lightly-raced horse that was really progressive.
“The French racing is very different to English racing, it’s a lot more like the Australian-style of running , so I thought he’d really suit Australia.”
Newlook is out of the Hurricane Run mare Skysweeper, who is also the dam of La Parisienne, a two-time winner who finished runner-up in the Prix de Diane (2100m) and was third in the Prix Vermeille (2400m) at Group 1 level.
Newlook struggled to break through early in his career, filling minor placings at four of his first five starts, before winning his final three starts in France.
The most recent of those came in the Listed Prix Vulcain (2500m) around a month before the Autumn Sale.
Newlook has been in Australia since December and preparations for his Caulfield appearance have included two trials, the first a low-key last placing in a six-horse hitout over 1000m at Cranbourne before a strong win over 1400m at Wangaratta on July 7.
Saturday’s race is the first step in a campaign aimed at culminating with a start in the Melbourne Cup with Magnabosco saying he will be directed towards a ballot exempt race in an attempt to secure a spot in the big ‘two-miler’.
“We’ll have this run on the weekend and then we’ll look to really ramp things up,” Magnabosco said.
“We’re hoping with how lightly-raced he is and the physical and type of horse he is, with the turn of foot he’s got, he can really relish the conditions out here.”
The ballot-exempt opportunities have been bolstered this year with the Geelong Cup and Moonee Valley Gold Cup joining The Bart Cummings and The Archer, which is now run on Makybe Diva Stakes Day, on the list of ballot-exempt races.
Jamie Melham will partner Newlook at Caulfield, where he will jump from the second-widest gate in the field of 11.
