Trainer Phillip Stokes has some thinking to do with Sansom after the improving gelding made it three straight victories with a city success at Sandown.
Sansom backed up his two wins on the Pakenham synthetic track at the start of his preparation with an all-the-way win in heavy conditions on turf in Wednesday’s Ladbrokes Handicap (1300m) for two-year-olds, taking his overall record to three wins from five starts.
Stokes had been looking to give Sansom a break after Wednesday with a view to raising the bar later this year, and he still might.
But he admits he is now in two minds.
“Geez he has improved, this horse,” Stokes said.
“He just looks so good and he paraded so good and he is doing so well.
“I hate tipping them out when they are flying.
“He’s just thriving in the stable so I’ll just see how he pulls up.
“I’ll give him a couple of days in the stable and if he did pull up well I might even think about taking him to a Saturday race.”
Stokes has the Sandown Guineas in late spring as a potential longer range option for Sansom should he decide to send him for a short break now.
Ridden by Ben Allen, Sansom ($7.50) kicked away early in the home straight and defeated $2.60 favourite Maozi by 1-3/4 lengths with another 1-1/4-lengths to Divine Witness ($41) third.
Stokes had the favourite in the day’s other race for two-year-olds but Done By Me didn’t appreciate the heavy conditions, according to the trainer, and finished third to the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained filly Seatonic who led all the way to score by 3-3/4 lengths.
Maher said he was confident Seatonic would handle the conditions and he plans to press on with the filly into early spring to give her the chance to chase some valuable black-type.
Seatonic was part of a winning double for jockey Linda Meech who also steered the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-trained Inverloch to a 4-1/4-length front-running win in the Long Fine Plate (1800m).
Meech is more than 20 wins clear in this season’s Victorian premiership, with Wednesday’s double taking her season tally in the state to 135 wins, with 25 of those in town.
