Trainer Lloyd Kennewell is already looking ahead to the major Group 1 sprint for three-year-olds in Melbourne with debut winner Mbube.
The two-year-old son of Rubick was heavily supported to win the Sportsbet Fast Form Handicap (1000m) at Sandown on Saturday and Kennewell said the colt will be in the paddock on Monday to prepare for the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on Victoria Derby Day.
Backed from as much as $12 earlier in the week with bookies, Mbube ($3.50) under the guidance of Billy Egan, scored a 1-½ length win from the $2.90 favourite Stars Of Dom with Aston ($6.50) a short-half-head away third.
“He will be in the paddock at Fulmen Park on Monday morning getting ready for hopefully a Coolmore prep,” Kennewell said.
“He’s a highly talented galloper, probably as good as I’ve got in the yard, and I’ve been waiting probably 12 months for this horse.
“Watching him canter around as a yearling, you sort of knew what you had, and it’s a big call, because they need to gallop, which he could.
“He changed ownership because he was sold through a breeze-up sale for my other clients, and then we had to spend a lot of money to buy him back, but I knew how good he was.”
Kennewell said he made a trip to Sandown to walk the track to make sure it was suitable for Mbube to make his debut.
He was pleasantly surprised to find the track better than the Heavy 9 rating on Friday morning and said the track would be upgraded prior to racing on Saturday.
The track was a Soft 7 by the time Mbube went out to race.
“He wasn’t going to be running yesterday morning because of the track condition,” Kennewell said.
“We had a few people walk it and I came and I walked it myself, and I said the track should be upgraded before the first, and it was.
“We wouldn’t have been running on a (heavy) nine or ten, that’s for sure.
“He’s very good on top of the ground. He’s got a beautiful action, a very good turn of foot, a very good brain for a colt.
“I’m looking forward to the spring. This is a pretty serious horse.”
