Lightly raced three-year-old Ice Kool kept his perfect record intact at Royal Randwick on Saturday, overcoming inexperience to remain unbeaten and stamp himself a live $3 million Magic Millions Sunlight contender.
Racing on the speed throughout the Petaluma Benchmark 72 Handicap (1100m), the son of Zoustar did plenty wrong but still found enough late under stand-in jockey Jay Ford to make it two-from-two. An early duel with the pacey Petticoat had him overracing outside the lead, yet he stuck on strongly to the line.
Trainer David Pfieffer was buoyed by the win while acknowledging there’s polish to come. “He did overrace the middle stages of the race but the more he races, the more he will furnish and probably the better he will get I hope,” Pfieffer said. “It’s just a case of, he will need to learn to drop the bridle at the right stages of the race and breath and lengthen again.
“I think Jay (went a little wider on the turn) to try to get him away from the other horse to stop him pulling and to get him to relax and drop the bridle. He done it tough, probably harder on himself than he needed to but he got the job done.”
With regular rider Jason Collett in Queensland, Ford seized the opportunity aboard the rising talent. After a slightly awkward start, he pushed forward to sit with the leading pair, establishing a break on the chasers before asserting in the straight.
The $2.40 bookmakers favourite kept finding through the final 200m to defeat the Michael Freedman-trained Southern Heiress ($21) by a long neck, with Joe Pride’s Big Red Tequila ($5.50) a short head away in third.