No false steps for mare

CLASSY Victorian mare Pedrena must do everything right to win Saturday’s $500,000 Group 1 Tatts Tiara at Doomben, according to trainer Mick Price, but he couldn’t be happier with the mare headed into the race.

Price is hoping to draw in the first half of the barriers this morning, which would provide the $15 chance with her best avenue to provide him with his fifth Group 1 win of the season.

“She will need to all the luck to go her own way, it is probably the toughest race she has ever been in,” Price said.

“She drew barrier one and never went around a horse [when she won the Group 3 Glenlogan Park Stakes last month], so we need to draw inside eight if we can.

“It’s a tough race, but I’m happy with her.”

Pedrena is another Price bargain buy, with the astute trainer having an uncanny knack of unearthing relatively inexpensive yearlings and turning them into Group performers.

She was sold as a yearling for $60,000, and has now won more than $400,000 prizemoney.

“I do see a lot of lovely horses that I would love to train walk past me [at the sales] because I can’t afford them,” Price said. “I stand there salivating from time to time. But we do the work at the sales and are hard at it. We are pretty thorough, and if you are, some nice horses will come your way at value prices.”

Price’s recent record has been exceptional, with two of his former sprinting stars, Flying Artie and Extreme Choice, selling originally for $50,000 and $100,000, while last year’s Caulfield Guineas winner Mighty Boss sold as a yearling for $170,000.