Glamour colt Savaglee will commence an exciting summer programme at Trentham on Saturday, taking his place in the Group 2 Levin Classic (1400m).
The Oaks Stud galloper was undoubtedly the nation’s top three-year-old through the spring, winning the Group 2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m), Group 2 Sarten Memorial (1400m) and his crowning success, the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m).
Savaglee made his first public appearance since his Riccarton success in a stacked Group and Listed trial at Matamata last month, where after powering from the gates, he travelled comfortably and won under little pressure for regular hoop Sam Spratt.
The impressive display further instilled horse racing bookmakers‘ confidence in Savaglee, installing him an odds-on favourite at $1.70 for Saturday’s age-group feature, a race his trainer Pam Gerard is hoping will be a springboard to bigger targets.
“We’ve just kept him ticking over nicely, building up fitness and trying to have him in the best condition that we can,” she said.
“It’s not our final race for the season so he’s pretty well, he’s carrying a little bit of excess condition but we’re pretty happy with where he’s at.
“At the 1400, there just wasn’t anything else available, and it was going to be this race or the Telegraph (Group 1, 1200m). We didn’t really want to take on the older horses at 1200m, then he’d carry a lot of weight in races like the Almanzor (Group 3, 1200m).
“It was pretty plain sailing really, it had to be this one.”
The colt is a Karaka Yearling Sales purchase and a Kiwi-bred, meaning there are many options at his disposal including the lucrative $1.5 million Karaka Millions 3YO (1600m) on January 25, and later in March, the $3.5 million NZB Kiwi (1500m).
As a future stallion prospect, Gerard has indicated Savaglee would be more likely to chase valuable black-type, with the Group 1 BCD Group Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa on February 8 on the radar.
“We’ll know more after this Saturday in how he’s tracking, but at this stage, it’ll be this into the BCD Sprint. After that, hopefully we’ll be on to Australia,” she said.
“If not, we’ll see how he looks after Saturday, there’s still the Karaka Millions and the slot race. It’s one race at a time, we don’t have to rush to Australia if we don’t think he’s come back as well as he was. It’s been a big season so far with a lot of cancelations in getting him to Christchurch, so it’s going to catch up with him at some stage.”
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