Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr were not initially convinced extending Sabaj’s campaign beyond the Cranbourne Cup was a great idea, but the training duo is now glad they have.
The exciting miler will therefore take his place in this Saturday’s $2 million Group 2 The Ingham at Randwick.
The 1600-metre event will be run three weeks after the $500,000 Cranbourne Cup (1600m), which Sabaj won brilliantly, and Kent said the only reason he is heading north this week is because of how well he has come through that race.
“To be honest, immediately post-race we were in two minds whether to push on or not, but the following morning Mick (Price) was in the stable and he was delighted with what he saw,” Kent said.
“The horse ate very well overnight, he wasn’t too tucked up and whilst he ran a track record, we think the horse coped really well with the run.
“There was no travelling involved being at Cranbourne, that probably helped a bit, and for a lighter-framed horse he looks good in the body.
“He had a week out at my farm, at Kingshaven, where he had some time on the grass, we did some dressage work with him just to put some condition back on…I think he’s in the zone, he feels great.”
Sabaj was one of 28 nominations for The Ingham when they closed on Monday morning, joined by the likes of Gringotts, Duke De Sessa, past winners Loch Eagle and Robusto and the progressive Yorkshire.
Sabaj worked the Sydney way of going at Cranbourne on Saturday and will do so again Tuesday morning before starting his trip to Sydney on Wednesday.
Price and Kent have recently changed their travel routine to Sydney and Sabaj will head from Cranbourne to Nagambie and have a few hours rest before making the trip up the Hume Hwy.
“We used to go right the way through but we had one horse get sick so we’ve changed our system and now we break the trip up,” Kent said.
“If you go in the middle of the day you miss all the traffic, (he’ll be) head down in a green grass paddock for five hours then it’s seven hours to Rosehill from Nagambie.”
Sabaj has already coped well with a trip to Sydney with the former South Australian’s first run for Price and Kent coming in the 1300m Silver Eagle, when he was a luckless sixth behind Linebacker, which preceded his wins at Flemington and Cranbourne.
