Mick Price & Michael Kent Jnr already have the Blue Diamond favourite but are hoping to bolster their team when Big Sky steps out at Flemington on Saturday.
Markets for the Group 1 two-year-old feature went up during the week and saw impressive debut winner Guest House quickly backed into $6 favouritism.
Big Sky, a colt by Bivouac, certainly wasn’t missed at $15 ahead of his debut in the Tab We’re On Handicap (1000m).
Price, who won the Blue Diamond Stakes with Samaready in 2012 and Extreme Choice in 2016, said it was all systems go for Big Sky who was ultra impressive winning his latest jump out at Cranbourne by a big margin.
“He’s a nice horse,” Price said.
“When Ben Melham trialled him at his second trial, I thought he was quite impressive.
“And Melham is up here, obviously, so very happy to have Mark Zahra on.
“He had a gallop on Monday morning on the grass and sat off one, ran good time and recovered very well.
“So we had the data on him and the data’s very good, and I expect him to be hard to beat.”
Big Sky is rated a $2.40 favourite in the opening race at Flemington on Saturday, and with the Blue Diamond Preview’s taking place next Saturday at Caulfield, Price said the timing worked out well.
“I think with the two-year-olds, timing is very important,” Price said.
“He was in the zone where he was right, so from his trial to his Monday morning gallop to the race, it’s a good rhythm and it’s good prize money.
“It will stand him in good stead if he does win to take that form into the Prelude over 1100 meters into the Blue Diamond that way.
“I wasn’t sure that he’d be suited in a 1000 metre Preview. The Preview’s quite fast, and I think he’s a horse that will just get a bit balanced and I think the straight will suit him.”
Price also confirmed that Guest House would head straight to the Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) on Feburary 7th ahead of the Blue Diamond three weeks’ later.
