Mimosas will be out to remain unbeaten when he heads to Sandown for his second race start.
Clayton Douglas says it was good to get in the good books of his future mother-in-law with the debut win of Mimosas at Flemington.
Mimosas is owned by Karen Kah, the mother of Douglas’ fiancee and Melbourne’s leading rider Jamie Kah.
Riding in Adelaide the day Mimosas was successful at Flemington on May 15, Kah will be aboard her mother’s horse in the Clanbrooke Racing Handicap (1000m) at Sandown on Saturday.
“Having won his first start it has taken the pressure off, so I’m happy with that,” Douglas told RSN.
“It’s a good family story with Karen owing him, me training him, Jamie doing all the work on him, we broke him in ourselves and he won his first start at Flemington.
“So far, so good.”
Mimosas was a $20,000 yearling purchase in Tasmania having been selected by Douglas’ uncle, Rod, a former trainer and racing manager for Jonathon Munz.
Douglas said there had been some offers from for Mimosas following his debut win, but he said Karen was happy to continue racing him.
“He doesn’t owe us anything. He’s a nice horse to have around the stable and hopefully he can progress into a nice three-year-old,” Douglas said.
Mimosas caught Douglas a little off-guard with his debut win at Flemington despite having performed well in his lead-up trials.
But the trainer, who has prepared seven winners from 32 starts, expects Saturday’s wet conditions to favour Mimosas.
“If I was going to a maiden for his debut, I would have been very confident, but to throw him in the deep end down the straight, first go, I had my queries about him,” Douglas said.
“But it was a really good win and he’s trained on since and I think he’ll come into his own on the wet.
“We’ve done a fair bit of work with him on wet and he seems to get through it nicely, so I’m not scared to run him on a heavy track on Saturday.”
