After trialling brilliantly last Friday, ‘Black Piranha’ now has his eyes firmly set on winning the $1.5 million prize of the Emirates Doncaster Mile.
Black Piranha finished agonisingly close behind ‘Vision and Power’ in the 2009 version of the Group 1 race, and this years assault is now in full motion.
Veteran trainer Con Karakatsanis’ stable star looks to have come back a stronger and more mature horse after a less than perfect Spring campaign in Melbourne. Karakatsanis has prepared a similar program to last Autumn’s saying, “He is Doncaster and Stradbroke bound this year and he’s on target”.
In his 1030m trial conducted at Rosehill, Black Piranha trailed the field around the turn before bursting clear in the straight. Eased up before the line, he won comfortably at the finish, holding a 4.3 length margin over Graeme Rogerson trained ‘Mazzini’ and consistent 4 year old ‘Maybe I’.
The six-year-old gelding has been earmarked for a race return in the Group 2 Canterbury Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill on March 20, the same weight-for-age race that stamped him as potential big-race contender last year.
Black Piranha has raced 40 times for seven wins and over $1.8 million in prize money.
Written by Isaac Chaplin
