Sprinter has G1 audition

Price on a winter mission

Mick Price kicks off his Queensland winter carnival team on Saturday with a pair of Eagle Farm runners including one who will be having her audition for a crack at the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 a fortnight later.

Price will unleash last start Group 2-winning sprinting mare Wee Nessy in the Group 2 Victory Stakes (1200m), while three-year-old Robrick will be out to impress in the Group 2 Queensland Guineas (1600m).

Both are given decent chances by bookmakers – Wee Nessy is a $7.50 chance in the Victory while Robrick is $8 in the Queensland Guineas.

Wee Nessy had gone a while without winning but got on the board when scoring the $300,000 Sapphire Stakes at Randwick last month.

She will tangle with the likes of Group 1 winner Uncommon James and the progressive Antino in the Victory and then the training team is eyeing off the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 where she is currently a $26 chance.

“She’s got to race against the boys but that’s OK, she’s a nice mare and she is sprinting well and she is fit and sound,” Price, who co-trains with Michael Kent Jr, said. “She has drawn barrier one and it will be what it will be. She has to go up in grade, but she is up in Queensland for the right races.

“I think the Doomben 10,000 around a tight track will be her chance to win a Group 1, a tight track is good for her. She hadn’t won for a while before she won in Sydney, but gee, she ran some really good placings.”

Robrick hasn’t been that far away in Listed races over 1200m and 1400m in Sydney in recent times, and he finished runner-up behind Estriella in the $1m Inglis Sprint over 1200m at Flemington in March.

Robrick has never stretched out to 1600m but Price is convinced it will be in his sweet spot. “I think Robrick will be beautifully suited to the 1600m, he’s a big, strong gelding,” Price (pictured) said.

“He’s not a 1200m sprinter. He’s a lovely sound clean winded gelding and he should run very well on Saturday.”

Meanwhile, Price has identified his Group 1 All Aged Stakes runner-up Amenable as his likely contender for the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap in June.

Amenable ran out of his skin when sent out $51 in the All Aged Stakes and only narrowly went down to Magic Time.

“His form before being gelded was OK, he was close up in the Memsie and the Toorak and now that he has been gelded, you are seeing a nice horse,” Price said.

“First-up this campaign he went too hard at Flemington, second-up he didn’t like that western Sydney humidity. And then third-up you saw a really good performance.

“He is a Stradbroke horse because he will appreciate a tough 1400(m), especially with speed on in front of him.”