Discovery Bay achieved targets set for him by trainer Bruce Harvey last season and will take his first step toward higher honours this term when he resumes at Taupo on Wednesday.
The well-related son of No Nay Never returns from a break to take on a competitive age group line-up and has made good progress ahead of his return.
Discovery Bay split the stakes-winning duo of Sacred Satono and Codigo when runner-up in a 950m open trial on Cambridge’s all-weather track last week.
“He trialled very well the other day, he had missed a trial at Cambridge because of insufficient numbers the week before and that would have been better timing,” Harvey said.
“He’s going well though and it’s a step-up in grade now, you can’t hide as a three-year-old, so he’ll kick off at Taupo.”
Discovery Bay was unbeaten in two trials before he made a successful juvenile debut and then finished runner-up in the Listed Castletown Stakes (1200m) on an unsuitably heavy track at Wanganui prior to a break.
“It was pretty bottomless that day and the winner (Chantilly Lace) was pretty impressive, but we achieved what we wanted with him as a two-year-old for the owners,” Harvey said.
“They bred him and have got the mare and he won a two-year-old race and was stakes placed.
“It wasn’t ideal to go around on that wet track at Wanganui, but it was a weaker field and an opportunity to get black type for the mare and we ticked that one off.”
Discovery Bay boasts a pacy pedigree with his dam the Choisir mare Natural Selection a half-sister to the Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (1000m) and Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m) and Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) runner-up Zizou.
“He’s also from Not A Single Doubt’s family so there’s a lot of speed there and in his first-up win at Cambridge he sat wide from the draw so he was pretty good,” Harvey said.
“He pricked his ears and gawked around on the line, everything he has done so far he’s done pretty well.”
Harvey will decide on Discovery Bay’s future spring path after Taupo, where he will again be partnered by Trudy Thornton, who has ridden the gelding in all his trials and on race day.
“We’ll take it one at a time and everybody with a promising three-year-old is probably aiming toward Hawke’s Bay,” he said.
“I would have liked to have got that trial into him earlier so we’re going a step at a time with him.
“He’s not an overly big horse but he thinks he is and really tries hard.”
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