Arabian Summer gave Tony and Calvin McEvoy something to think about after demolishing her rivals in Saturday’s Magic Millions Ballarat 2YO Classic (1000m).
The daughter of Too Darn Hot’s 3-1/2-length win in the $250,000 race ensured there was a start for her in the $3 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic on the Gold Coast on January 13 if the McEvoys wish and the senior member of the father/son training team said it would be given serious consideration.
“We’ve got to make a decision now on whether to go north,” Tony said.
“She’s so professional and the Gold Coast suits horses that race like her. We’ll enjoy today, let the dust settle and see what happens.”
Arabian Summer’s win franked the form of two of Victoria’s highest-profile juvenile winners to date.
She finished second to Coleman in the Listed Debutant Stakes on debut before a third placing in the Group 3 Ottawa Stakes, behind Karavas and Eneeza, who was an impressive winner of last Saturday’s Listed Merson Cooper Stakes.
Harry Coffey was aboard for the Ballarat win, the middle pin of a hat-trick to start the day for he and the McEvoys, and said Arabian Summer’s class came to the fore.
Arabian Summer defeated the fast-finishing Parkour ($5), who finished a neck clear of third placegetter Vianarra ($26) in a time of 56.70 seconds, which was just 0.26secs outside Anna’s Choice’s track record despite the race being run on a deteriorating Soft 5 track.
“I thought her Caulfield run was a really good run and then she got lost down the straight in a pretty smart race at Flemington,” Coffey said.
“All she had to do was turn up and even if she wasn’t at her best, I thought she’d still win.”
Arabian Summer was a $220,000 purchase out of Book 2 at the January Sale on the Gold Coast and became Too Darn Hot’s second Australian in three days following the breakthrough win of Climate Change at Geelong on Thursday.
Arabian Summer’s win followed stablemate Sunset Dreaming’s comfortable win in the opening event as a $1.60 favourite, while Give Giggles made it a treble to start the day when she took her record to four wins from six starts with a strong win in the 1100m benchmark 70 event.
