Prince Tycoon showed he is far from the finished product but might yet be bound for a rich two-year-old feature during the Queensland Winter Carnival after making a winning debut on Saturday.
The Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-trained gelding lived up to some impressive jumpouts in the $150,000 Next Payments Handicap that kicked off the Caulfield card.
The son of Written Tycoon was wayward for all but the last 200m of the 1100m event, leaving Busuttin to think there is plenty of improvement to come as a three-year-old, but a shot at the $1 million Magic Millions National 2YO Classic might be too good to resist.
“He was hanging the whole way around the corner and wasn’t super sharp like he was in the trial and I thought, ‘geez, when you’re the first one off the bit you’re in trouble’, but to his credit he dug in deep,” Busuttin said.
“There’s a million-dollar two-year-old race on the Gold Coast in about two weeks, so it’ll be hard to argue against that.
“But it’s just good to come here and get the job done. They’re always hard to win on a Saturday and they’re hard to win first time to the races.”
The 1000m Magic Millions National 2YO Classic will be run at the Gold Coast on Friday night, May 23.
The Caulfield win was an early return for the Busuttin and Young stable, who paid $80,000 for the son of Written Tycoon in partnership with First Light Racing at the Gold Coast January Sale last year.
Prince Tycoon started $2 favourite at Caulfield and settled outside the leader, Rosangela, after jumping well, but distributed warning signs from the 400m mark when it was evident he was not appreciating the Caulfield home turn.
Still spotting Rosangela ($8.50) over a length at the 200m mark, Prince Tycoon let down powerfully in the final furlong to get home by a long neck. Third, 2-1/2 lengths away, was Millenium Blade ($10).
Daniel Moor has done a lot of the preparatory work on Prince Tycoon and was aboard for the debut and he said it was an encouraging result given the things he did wrong.
“That was critically important, having that association with him before today, because he’s a quicky horse – he’s a big, scopey horse with great ability – but he’s still very much unfinished in his furnishing,” Moor said.
“He’s got a good future. He does need to furnish, he does need to mature, but even off today he may get a little bit further as well.”
