Trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr celebrated a race-to-race double with New Zealand-breds at Sandown on Saturday afternoon, headed by the unbeaten Globe (NZ) (Charm Spirit) in the A$150,000 King’s Coronation Cup (1800m).
It was the fourth win in as many starts for the four-year-old Charm Spirit gelding, who had previously scored victories at Pakenham on March 16 and March 30, then at Sandown on April 19.
Backed into $1.80 favouritism on Saturday for the toughest test of his career to date, Globe dominated the race from the front.
Apprentice jockey Celine Gaudray angled him out into the better ground wider out in the home straight, and the exciting galloper romped to an effortless four-length victory.
“He was a little unsettled and on the bridle early on, but once he relaxed, he was in a really good rhythm and he sustained that rhythm to the line,” Gaudray said. “He’s definitely still really green and when other horses aren’t with him, he gets a little lost in front on his own.”
Price is now weighing up whether to continue the up-and-comer’s autumn preparation.
“I think he’s got a good motor on him,” he said. “He’s learned a lot this preparation and he’s settled, but he is a four-year-old, not like a three-year-old where we’re waiting for him to grow up. So I wouldn’t say he necessarily has to go to the paddock.
“It would be interesting to see him over 2000m. He was a little bit keen there and I am hoping that’s not a temperamental thing. Sometimes, towards the end of a prep, their temperament gets a little bit rattled, but we’ll try to make the right decision.”
Globe is out of Bonnie Doon (NZ) (Don Eduardo), who is a full-sister to dual Group One winner Booming (NZ). He was purchased at the 2020 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 2 Sale from the draft of Cambria Park for $22,000.
Photo Credit: Bruno Cannatelli
In the next race on the card, Globe’s stablemate Gunstock (NZ) (Tavistock) also lived up to his favouritism with a win in the A$150,000 Catanach’s Jewellers Handicap (1600m).
Ridden by Mark Zahra, the four-year-old raced in fifth spot before producing a determined finish over the top of Keats to snatch victory in the shadows of the post.
“He was good, wasn’t he,” Price said. “He was spinning the wheels a bit between the 400 and the 150, and I thought ‘Oh well, he’s off here.’ But then he was very gutsy.”
Gunstock has now had eight starts for four wins, two placings and A$369,185, headed by wins in the Gr.3 Caulfield Classic (2000m) as a spring three-year-old and in the Gr.3 Coongy Cup (2000m) last October.
“He’s a bit of a TLC job, but he’s very clean-winded, with good heart and lung capacity on him, and he’s done that on raw ability,” Price said.
Bred by Brendan and Jo Lindsay of Cambridge Stud, Gunstock is bred on the famed Tavistock-Zabeel cross.
An $80,000 purchase by Jamie Beatson of Ohukia Lodge from Cambridge Stud’s 2020 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Sale draft at Karaka, Gunstock is out of Zeranti (NZ), who is also the dam of Gunstock’s full-brother The Irishman (NZ), a Group Two performer in Australia and a stakes performer in New Zealand.
