It would be quite a spectacular return to winning ways if the Mick Price and Michael Kent (Jnr) trained Reserve Bank were to salute in the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 on Saturday.
The chestnut son of Capitalist spent twelve months on the sidelines, only returning to race action in the Group 2 Victory Stakes at Eagle Farm on May 2, where he finished in sixth place, 3.34 lengths behind Splash Back, in the kind of run that was to be expected of a horse still building fitness and blowing out the cobwebs after such a long layoff.
Reserve Bank’s story prior to that is one of outstanding form and a career interruption caused by something not usually associated with thoroughbreds … the Ross River virus … which stopped Reserve Bank in his tracks.
In two runs in April and one in May 2025, Reserve Bank was in as hot a run of results as you can get, winning three feature races on the trot … the Listed Redelva Stakes, the Group 2 Tobin Bronze Stakes and the Group 1 Goodwood … all at Morphettville … as he started to deliver on the early promise he had showed with scoring back-to-back wins in his first two career starts.
You would have believed then that Reserve Bank was on his way to better things.
That scenario changed dramatically though when, very early one morning, Mick Price and his stable staff found Reserve Bank in some distress in his box. Price recalled Reserve Bank ‘shaking like a leaf’ and the reason behind Reserve Bank’s condition was not immediately clear, until his blood profile was taken which indicated the presence of the Ross River virus.
The length of the recovery time was non-negotiable … and thus a blossoming career was shut down in mid-stride for that twelve month period.
Back in good health now and building fitness, Reserve Bank was given no favours at the barrier draw for the Doomben 10 000, coming up with a visitor’s draw of number seventeen.
Negotiating a positive passage from that draw will be the responsibility of Cejay Graham, a locally based rider who lines up as the only female rider in the jockey ranks for the Doomben 10 000.
It would be a magnificent training achievement if Reserve Bank came back a winner here. If that happens it would mean Cejay Graham had established a new personal best, with her first Group 1 win surpassing her Group 2 success aboard Kintyre in the 2024 Queensland Guineas … and she would have made history by becoming the first female rider to win the Doomben 10 000.
It is a tough ask … and a fair amount of water has to go under the bridge before then … but who’s to say it can’t happen!
